Square foot requirement for Yoga

The local Code Enforcement is limiting our yoga studio to 1 participant every 50 sqft, we are in the same catagory at “exercise”. My 1,200 Sqft space would limit us to 16 people at any one time as we have a foyer for check in and a bathroom, etc. I have been in many classes that are jammed and exceed this occupancy although liability is the issue. Anyone who has or works at a studio have any comment? I would hate to limit our studio as we could support up to 35 students in the space we may lease. Thanks.

Can you request a variance?

I?m a structural engineer and a variance may require a look see by a registered engineer and that?s not cheap, what you?re describing seems very conservative, damn lawyers have their hands in everything. On the other hand, 35 people moving in harmonic rhythm oscillating the floor beams, maybe they’re considering the dynamics or is it a fire hazard generating all the heat.

The way it is described to me is an occupancy issue. The category is “exercise” which requires 50 sqft per occupant. A dance studio requires 7’ per occupant, for example. Common sense doesn’t dictate. I spoke with the village code enforcement today and he is going to ask the “regional” guy. The store front next door to us is a coffee shop, occupancy - 68. I get the feeling it has to do with safety and moving people out in the event of an emergency, i.e. fire. I mentioned if I had 30 people in an empty room (the studio) vs the coffee shop filled with tables, counters, et al, I would be able to get everyone to safety more efficiently. It’s a deal breaker for us after working on this for 2 months. We will have to rent another large space if he holds us to this requirement.

I was expecting a thread about people doing yoga who had square feet !
I run a studio in uk if we had such requirements I would shut down studio tomorrow ,
as would the majority of yoga spaces , although often what happens in USA happens here 10 - 15 years later , we have now got gun crime , muggings and macdonalds even krispy kreme donuts . We nowadays certainly have a lot more people in suits asking for all sorts of hoops to be jumped through . I hope common sense can prevail for you.

Update: They approved us for max occ of 49. They didn’t have a category for Yoga. Luckily common sense prevailed in this case. The remodel begins. Thanks for your replies.