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Less is more
This credit is meant to reduce the number of cars on the road and limit the sprawl of parking facilities. It also helps encourage carpooling and reduce transportation-related environmental impacts like emissions, 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.
You have three options to earn this credit:
- The easiest way to earn the credit—if it is possible on your project site—is to not add any additional capacity to the existing parking facilities....
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17 Comments
no local zoning
I looked on the ITE website and can't find a free version of this "Parking Generation". Any thoughts on where to find this and how to navigate through it to find the exact table I'm looking for?? Our project is a school in Denver that does not have a local zoning code. Thanks!
Hi Christine,
Check out this post. You may also want to report this question there. You will probably need to purchase the book. Or, perhaps, a library might have a copy.
No new parking in a big campus
Hello all,
I'm an architect and my project is a small classroom building in a K-12 private school campus with more than 15 buildings and no new parking will be added in the scope of this project.
School hired a LEED consultant and according to their report, SSc4.4 can be acheived AUTOMATICALLY since no parking is to be added.
Ok, I can understand this might be possible, but it says, SSc4.3 is possible if the school set aside 5% of total parking for fuel efficient vehicles.
I think it doesn't make sense to each other.
Can anybody help on this?
I might not be paid for pointing their discrepancy, but just curious if this is correct or not.
Thank you,
Yes, SSc4.4 can be earned with no new parking added.
To earn SSc4.3, you could designate part of the existing parking lot for LE/FE vehicles.
So, both credits are possible, strange as it may seem.
School Mini-buses
Can School Mini-buses be considered a type of Van pools ?
The School we are working on have reserved parking spaces for theses mini-buses. If the latter can be consider like vanpools, then it will be easier to get this credit.
Thanks,
George,
LEED defines a carpool as "an arrangement by which 2 or more people share a vehicle for transportation". So by that definition, I would say, yes the Mini-buses qualify. However, I would not recommend attempting this credit using only the Mini-buses, since they only take care of some of the School's population. If you designate other spaces for faculty and staff to carpool in addition to the buses, I feel the reviewers would look more favorably on your submission.
Also, be sure that these spaces are "preferred"... meaning closest to the main entrance for both the Mini-buses and faculty/staff parking.
Thanks Larry, your comments are very helpful. We'll try to convince the client of allocating preferential parking to other type of carpool as well.
On another note, we initially thought that Mini-bus parking lots would not need to be counted in parking capacity calculations, as this credit seeks to prevent the use of private cars (as opposed to school bus). But from your answer above, I understand that parking spaces for all type of vehicles must be considered in this credit.
Many thanks,
George,
Can you elaborate on the function of the Mini-buses? Are these vehicles used to bring the students to and from school daily or are they parked and only used on occasion?
Hi Larry,
The are vehicles used to bring the students to and from school daily.
Does it make a difference?
Thanks,
Ok good. I think that works in your favor versus occasionally used vehicles that get preferred parkingPreferred parking, available to particular users, includes designated spaces close to the building (aside from designated handicapped spots), designated covered spaces, discounted parking passes, and guaranteed passes in a lottery system., which I was worried about.
Larry
Local Zoning Versus State Agency
We are doing LEED Schools, and sometimes the State Schools governing agency minimum parking requirements exceed the local (i.e. city) jurisdiction. We are required to meet the State Schools minimum parking counts. Does anyone know of any precedents or 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's where this would be an acceptable approach to this credit, if we provided the State minimum amount of parking?
Greg,
You mentioned that sometimes the State's requirements exceed the local. I would definitely verify this before moving forward. But if they do exceed the local requirements, and if you can provide documentation that explains how and why the state requirement trumps the city's, that should justify your approach. It will also illustrate that the state regulation is your new baseline or local zoning reg. Of course if you could petition to the state to reduce the number of spaces for your school, all the better.
Another alternative: LEED refers to the Oregon Zoning Code for maximum number of parking spaces allowed, Title 33, Chapter 33,specifically Tables 266-1 and 266-2. If your project type does not exceed this maximum this may be another way to illustrate that even though you are forced to follow the State's requirements, you are still meeting the credit intent.
ITE study and recommended parking counts
What does the ITE study say about recommended spaces for elementary schools? How about midde and high schools? For example, if K-12 is not an option (as Jennifer Waddick indicates), could you calculate a weighted average across the metrics which are given for the specific types based on the proportions of our building)?
Shannon has a great comment on this in response to Jennifer's question.
Type of School
The ITI study lists different types of schools including elementary, middle and high schools. What if the school is a K-12? What type do I use to calculate parking?
Jennifer,
In your case it would probably be best to go with the most conservative value. If that doesn't work for the team, you could try a weighted average calculation based on the break-down of elementary, middle school, and high school students. If you do the weighted average approach be sure to write a detailed narrative explaining your calculations.
Hope that is helpful!
Shannon
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