BABCOCK REALTY EPARTNERS, LLP

Issue: Vertical accessibility to the second floor.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the 2,000 square foot second floor of an office building undergoing a $5,500 alteration to make the second floor toilet room accessible. According to the applicant it would cost an additional $20,000 to install a chair lift or $70,000 for an elevator to the second floor. Construction during the preceding three years was limited to replacing rusted parking lot light poles and $2,000 to replace front and side doors.

Project Progress:

The project is under construction and in plan review.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to the second floor, 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.