Issue: Vertical accessibility to the second floor.
Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to the second floor of a private Christian school undergoing a $50,000 alteration. The first floor is fully accessible and nothing is offered on the second floor that is not available on the first. Estimates of $31,000-$33,700 were submitted to substantiate the applicant’s statement that it would be disproportionate to install a lift to the second floor. During the course of the alteration, new toilet rooms were constructed on the second floor, which appear to comply with the code.
NOTE: This application was reviewed by the Council at the October, 2010 meeting although it was received after the deadline. The Council informally recommended that it be approved by the Commission, but it must receive an official vote before the Commission may consider it.
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Project Progress:
The project is under construction.
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.