GOLDEN LION CAFÉ

Issue: Vertical accessibility to a new open air deck at a restaurant.

Analysis: The applicant is requesting a waiver from providing vertical accessibility to a new, 714 square foot elevated deck costing $23,000. According to the applicant, the lower enclosed portion of the restaurant as well as the existing lower deck are both fully accessible. Estimates of $21,691 and $21, 980 were submitted as the cost to install a lift to the deck area. The application states that given the facility’s proximity to the ocean, salt corrosion would also make it infeasible to try and maintain working equipment in the environment. During the preceding three years, $17,561 has been spent on the facility for electrical repair, HVAC replacement, roof repairs and a hood suppression system. NOTE: None of these costs are considered alterations based on the provisions of Chapter 11, FBC.

Project Progress:

The project is under design.

Items to be Waived:

Vertical accessibility to the raised deck, as required by Chapter 53,509, 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.