CASANOVA SUITES MIAMI

Issue: Vertical accessibility to two hotel rooms.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to two of 22 rooms provided in a hotel undergoing an alteration. The project consists of converting 3,037 square feet on the first floor from a nightclub to seven hotel rooms. Two of the seven rooms cannot be made vertically accessible because a concrete header supporting two rooms below would have to be removed, and doing so would damage the structural integrity of the building. The construction cost is estimated to be between $175,000 and $225,000; however, no bids for making the areas in question accessible were provided since it is not a matter of cost, but technical infeasibility that is the reason for the waiver request.

Project Progress:

The project is in plan review.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to two hotel rooms as required by Section 553.509, Florida Statutes.

553.509: Vertical accessibility - Nothing in sections 553.501-553.513 or the guidelines shall be construed to relieve the owner of any building, structure or facility governed by those sections from the duty to provide vertical accessibility to all levels above and below the occupiable grade level, regardless of whether the guidelines require an elevator to be installed in such building, structure or facility, except for:

(1) Elevator pits, elevator penthouses, mechanical rooms, piping or equipment catwalks and automobile lubrication and maintenance pits and platforms;

(2) Unoccupiable spaces, such as rooms, enclosed spaces and storage spaces that are not designed for human occupancy, for public accommodations or for work areas; and

(3) Occupiable spaces and rooms that are not open to the public and that house no more than five persons, including, but not limited to equipment control rooms and projection booths.

Waiver Criteria: There is no specific guidance for a waiver of this requirement in the code. The Commission’s current rule, authorized in Section 553.512, Florida Statutes, provides criteria for granting waivers and allows consideration of unnecessary or extreme hardship to the applicant if the specific requirements were imposed.