-
Plenty of options
This credit offers multiple options for residential and non-residential projects. These strategies help to reduce the number of cars on the road, cut down on the sprawl of parking facilities, and decrease the negative environmental impacts of parking infrastructure, including stormwater runoff and the urban heat islandA densely populated area in which pavement and buildings absorb, store, and release solar energy, making the vicinity warmer than it would be if the pavement and buildings were not present. effect.
Getting mileage out of your efforts
Assess the location and context of your project to make sure that carpooling, public...
Step-by-step credit help
Got the gist of the LEED credit but not sure how to actually achieve it? LEEDuser gives step-by-step help. Members get:
- Checklists covering all the key action steps you'll need to earn the credit.
- Hot tips to give you shortcuts and avoid pitfalls.
- Cost tips to assess what a credit will actually cost, and how to make it affordable.
- Ideas for going beyond LEED with best practices.
- All checklists organized by project phase.
- On-the-fly suggestions on useful items from the Documentation Toolkit, Resources, and Credit Language.
-
Credit language straight from USGBC
Need to check up on the exact LEED credit language from the LEED Rating System on the fly? LEEDuser includes the verbatim language. Members get:
- Easy access to the official LEED credit language with just a couple of clicks.
- On the jobsite without your bulky LEED Reference Guide? Check up on the credit language details here.
- Credit language content is used by permission of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Your credit-by-credit reference library
Why waste time chasing down referenced standards and supporting resources when LEEDuser links you directly to the ones you need? LEEDuser has gathered all the best tools out there and organized them by credit for easy reference. Members get links to:
- Organizations that can give information or help on a credit.
- Standards or studies that are key reference points for credits and prerequisites.
- Articles that help explain important topics.
- Key documents or references for credit inputs.
- Software tools you can use to run calculations or simulations.
Documentation Toolkit
In the end, LEED is all about documentation. LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit saves you time and helps you avoid mistakes with:
- Calculators to help assess credit compliance.
- Tracking spreadsheets for materials purchases.
- Spreadsheets and forms to give to subs and other team members.
- Guidance documents on arcane LEED issues.
- Sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions.
- Examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects.
26 Comments
More parking spaces than local zoning requirements
We have 2 buildings to be certified as a multiple buildings situation. They are part of an industrial plant with several other buildings that won't seek LEED. However, the parking spaces that serve the entire plant are located within the LEED site boundary, right next to those 2 buildings. That said, I have 2 questions:
1) Is it possilbe to justify to the LEED commitee that there are a lot more parking spaces (than the minimum local zoning requirements) within the LEED boundary because most of them are serving the entire plant?
2) In either case, to comply with credits SSc4.3 e SSc4.4, to which number of parking spaces should I apply the 5% percentage to? To the number of the minimum local zoning (assuming that I will be able to justify the exceeding parking spaces) parking spaces or to the total number of parking spaces (those for the entire plant)?
Thank you very much!
Thank you very much!
No New Parking?
Hello,
We have a project on campus with 620 occupants and we have provided no new parking. However, we did have to provide a small service lot in the back of the building with two ADA accessible spaces, one service vehicle space and two spaces for small electric fleet vehicles. No occupants are allowed to use these spaces; only authorized vehicles.
Would this be considered no new parking?
Thanks
John, I would say this is debatable, and you may need a CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide to know for sure. There is precedent for parking associated with the "process" of the building to not be considered parking for SSc4—think parking at a rental car facility. Maybe the three non-ADA spots could be considered thus. The ADA spots really throw a wrench into that argument, though.
Is there other parking associated with the building?
Tristan, we have off-site parking on other parts of campus where the building occupants can purchase a permit for, but nothing new that was built in junction with our project other then the 2 small electric vehicle spaces, 2 ADA and 1 security space. We have a good bus system and it seems to me that we are meeting the intent of this credit; reducing site disturbance while incentivising alternative transportation. I guess it depends on how technical the reviewer wants to get.
I'll look into the CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide you mentioned, and thanks for the quick response.
design phase credit denied
I have a question about review process. If we are at the end of final design review completed and we have an item marked denied, are we able to revise our documentation and resubmit these during construction phase review? If we accept the final review are we still able to work out the reporting requirements to earn the items identified as denied in design application?
Keelan - Unfortunately once you accept the final review for the Design Submittal, you may not return to those denied Design credits. You either accept the reviewer's disposition and lose the denied Design credits or submit an appeal for denied Design credits you wish to achieve. Ideally, those appeals will be accepted and then can you proceed to the Construction Submittal. The only exception to that is that I have had reviewers allow me to change innovation credit topics due the semantics of half the ID credits being termed Design and half being termed Construction. But for all intents, think of them as two stand-alone reviews.
Tim, very helpful, thanks. Since there are no follow-up technical comments or advice accompanying the denied credit, what is the best strategy for achieving a successful appeal when the problem is likely informational? Is there a means to discuss the issue with the reviewer to better understand the reporting problem?
Keelan,
In your preliminary design review was this credit marked for clarification? It's surprising to see a credit denied without any explanation. Usually you'd have technical comments and advice from the preliminary review that have to be addressed very specifically. I'm wondering if the reviewer didn't see any changes or revisions? Many teams will upload a separate memo called "Review Response" or "Clarification" in the supporting documents to answer the preliminary review issues and to make sure the final review sees the response.
As far as who to contact, if you got an email notifying you of the design phase review, look for an email address or name in that email, or contact GBCI. Hope this gets cleared up.
Non-Residential with New Parking (80% + Fuel Efficient/Electric)
We are trying to achieve credit SSc4 option 2 for NC 2.2. Our project is on a college campus- outside of the campus transportation services zoning because it is a user support building for student housing. There is no local zoning, so I followed Portland Zoning as the guide requires. We have a total number of 21 parking space, of which 14 are for low-emitting "GEM" like electric vehicles only, therefore they are smaller in size than a normal stall. We also provide on van-pool and one handicap on site. This leaves us with 5 remaining regular parking stalls. If I calculate the carpool requirements of 5% of total parking capacity, then we are required to provide 2 carpool spaces. This would be a bit of a waste since the remaining 5 spaces are simply for maintenance worker vehicles providing service around the campus. Does anyone know a way around this? Are we required to include the electric vehicle parking in the calc? I know this is a bit fuzzy, but if anyone has come across a similar situation please let me know.
Thanks!
Kathryne,
Can you elaborate a little bit more of what your proposing. From your question I first thought you might be falling under Option 3, but I'm unsure. Are you providing refueling stations for the GEM cars? Or are you just providing the cars themselves (which would fall under Option 1)? Either way, when you calculate the number of spaces for SSc4.4, it is of the total parking capacity, not what's left after providing spaces for SSc4.3.
Thanks Larry, i will try to clarify. This project is a service (maintenance/ admin etc) building for college housing. Total on-site parking is 21 spaces. This means we are required to have 2 carpool spaces when rounding up. Of the 21 spaces, 14 are small parking spaces that will only fit GEM size carts. The parking lots is strictly for maintenance workers moving around the campus and coming back to park at the service center.(ie. painters, repairmen etc.) All vehicles are provided by the campus. No one will be parking here that would be "carpooling". There are parking garages on campus where employees park their own personal vehicles. We do provide one "van-pool" space, for a vehicle that acts as a van pool transporting people around campus. Another space is a handicap spot. This leaves 5 regular size spaces for maintenance trucks. If we are required to make on of those remaining space a carpool space, this would be a wasted parking spot. Do you see any way of achieving this credit by not including the maintenance vehicle parking spaces?
Kathryne, maybe this is off the wall, but.... do these maintenance personnel sometimes go places together (carpoolling), and would it not make sense ecologically to reward that by giving them a preferred spot when they are doing that?
My other thoughts here:
- Perhaps this credit is not a good fit for the project.
- What if you put the carpool space in, and let them sort out how to use it?
prison facility with no zoning
Following the ITE Parking Generation 3rd Edition, there is no data for prison facilities although they do have a "Land Use code" for that use (#571). Called ITE and didn't get a satisfactory answer (no answer). I am using the numbers for an elementary school assuming that 1. inmates and elementary students don't drive, 2. each will have visitors. I used the higher number of parking spaces per elementary student vs. middle school students as I thought more people/family would come to visit the inmates during visiting hours. Middle school students are expressing their independence and don't want parents and others coming around.
Do you think this is a reasonable approach to this credit? If not, what do you suggest?
Yes, this seems reasonable to me.
Have you checked the available material on the 4th edition of the ITE report? I wonder if prisons are addressed.
I made a phone call to ITE and was able to speak with someone (Gina) who keeps track of this stuff. The have no parking data for prisons. So, I willl follow the path described and see what happens.
Peter - Were you successful with this approach?
Clarification on "Provide no new parking"
Our building was built on a previously developedPreviously developed sites are those altered by paving, construction, and/or land use that would typically have required regulatory permitting to have been initiated (alterations may exist now or in the past). Previously developed land includes a platted lot on which a building was constructed if the lot is no more than 1 acre; previous development on lots larger than 1 acre is defined as the development footprint and land alterations associated with the footprint. Land that is not previously developed and altered landscapes resulting from current or historical clearing or filling, agricultural or forestry use, or preserved natural area use are considered undeveloped land. The date of previous development permit issuance constitutes the date of previous development, but permit issuance in itself does not constitute previous development." site with a parking count of 400 spaces. Because of our new building footprintBuilding footprint is the area on a project site used by the building structure, defined by the perimeter of the building plan. Parking lots, parking garages, landscapes, and other nonbuilding facilities are not included in the building footprint., about 60 of those spaces were removed. We provided 18 new parking spaces on the one side of the building putting our new parking count at 358 spaces. We technically provided "new parking" but our overall parking count still diminished from the existing parking count. Can we still try to follow the compliancy of "Provide no new parking" by saying the spaces were simply "relocated"?
I would say yes, if you can provide an existing parking plan that shows the 400 spaces and the proposed site plan that shows the 358 spaces in your final documentation. Even though you are installing 18 spaces, it is still less than the existing so I agree that attempting the credit under the No New Parking Option is a good choice.
Using Parking Generation 3rd Edition.
Our project is a museum on a college campus with no zoning requirements. I have used the Parking Generation 3rd Edition however the museum information does not provide a single average to use. It states that there is so much deviation in this catagory that there is no correlation between the independent variable (1000 sq.ft.) and parked vehicles. I can think of several ways to approach this issue including: using the information from the case study most similar to our project, averaging the numbers of all studies (though they are VERY different case by case) and comparing our project to this average, etc. Is there an approach that is preferable or has been used in this case?
I don't know of what the reviewers would consider as preferable in this case. However, it sounds like the most accurate method may be using a case study most similar to your project type or perhaps using a project type of similar size. Most credits that have been attempted by and alternate compliance path are accepted by providing a clearly defined approach and a description of how the project intends to meet the credit. Of course you could always submit a CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide to get more guidance. Through my research I didn't find anything currently that may help guide you. Please keep us informed of your approach.
Site with no Zoning Requirements
One of my projects is on a Military Base with no Zoning Requirements. Some credits have a specific option for such sites, but it appears this credit does not provide a specific option for sites with no zoning requirements, is that correct? We could pursue Option 2, however it is a teaching facility and the FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories. number of instructors is tiny compared to the total building users including visitors (students). Is there any precedent to taking the 5% parking count of total building users for visitor dominated uses?
Lauren,
The credit actually does provide some advice for projects such as yours. Quoted from the 3rd edition of v2.2 NC ref guide, "When parking minimums are not defined by relevant local zoning requirements, or when there are no local zoning requirements..." you can either Meet the Portland Oregon Zoning Code, Title 33 Ch 33.266 - this std lists the maximum number of parking spots allowed OR if your building type does not fall under this standard, install 25% less parking than the building type's average listed in the Institute of Transportation Engineer's Parking Generation study, 3rd edition.
After you follow this, I think Option 1 would be more straightforward since you would be referencing one of the codes listed above as your local zoning requirement.
Parking vs. "Vehicle Storage"
If a maintenance facility must include "vehicle storage", a separate category per City zoning, does this impact the LEED parking calculation?
Jerry, you may find this forum thread on SSc4.4 v2009 about a 2008 CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide on vehicle maintenance spots helpful.
I think you may have a case for excluding the vehicle storage from your parking calcs—if that's what you were thinking of doing.
Please post back with how this goes and additional thoughts.
Rounding-off the total Number of carpool parking
Hello,
I just want to ask if I could just have 2 parkings instead of 3 parkings for carpooling if the answer of the 5% of total parking spaces is 2.1? Please advise. Thank you.
For SSc4.2, you always have to round up, even from 2.1 to 3. I don't know this for sure, but I assume this would also be the case with SSc4.4.
Please register to use the forum.