I am working on a LEED ND Project which involves only commercial office buildings and small retail spaces. The neighborhood around the project boundary is already developed and connected, but the project site has one predeveloped portion and one that is intact, densely vegetated and with some slopes over 15%. We are preserving this contiguous area, and developing only on portions already constructed. Because of that, the street network inside the project is extremely poor, since we have 2 streets connected as a circle surrounding and connecting the buildings (swerving the preserved area) and no valid intersection. Also, to enter and exit the project site we use the same intersection because the green area is bordering one side of the project site. (The other borders of the site are still unconstructed but we can’t invade the neighbor’s land with a street, so we are in a sort of an island in a only-one-way to get in the project site). I am afraid we can’t earn this prerequisite, so my questions are: 1.Can I choose to apply for Option 2 “Projects with no internal streets” in NPD pre requisite 3 – Connected and Open Community although we have this internal circular street surrounding the buildings? 2: To calculate the intersections per square mile can I exclude from the calculations this whole green area (which is around 5.5 hectare) although some parts of it don’t have steep slopes?
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Eliot Allen
LEED AP-ND, PrincipalCriterion Planners
LEEDuser Expert
303 thumbs up
March 25, 2012 - 5:35 pm
Karyn, re your first question, if your project is creating internal streets that meet the ND definition of 'street,' i.e. a dedicated ROW that's addressable for mail, then you're obligated to use Option 1, or seek a CIR for extenuating circumstances. If, on the other hand, your internal streets aren't dedicated ROWs but more like driveways, then Option 2 becomes possible. Re your second question, a 'green area' with slopes under 15% can only be excluded from the square mileage used for calculating intersection density if it's a 'park' as defined by ND, or otherwise non-buildable because a local code or other ND requirements prevent construction on it.
Eliot
Karyn Rodrigues
Senior consultant, LEED AP ND & BD+CArup
17 thumbs up
March 26, 2012 - 10:18 am
Thanks Eliot. I'll check with the developers about the address, but I guess (in this case) its much more like a big condo of commercial office buildings, which, in my opinion, the "streets" are not formally addressable for mail purposes. Am I right? ALso, is there any LEED-definition for "driveway"?
For the green area, it will be protected by law and consequently non-buildable, so the exclusion may apply.
Eliot Allen
LEED AP-ND, PrincipalCriterion Planners
LEEDuser Expert
303 thumbs up
March 26, 2012 - 11:06 am
Karyn, in addition to whether the 'streets' are addressed for mail delivery, you'll want to determine if they're located in dedicated right-of-ways since that's the big difference between streets and driveways. The latter isn't defined in ND, but a reasonable interpretation would be a travel way constructed on land that is not a dedicated right-of-way.
Regarding the green area's legal protection from development, you'll want to confirm that the protection is codified so as to apply to all similar green areas in the jurisdiction, not just to this specific project site. For example, a project development agreement negotiated between a developer and local government, and containing a green area set-aside provision, would not be considered a 'codified' protection under ND.
Eliot
Karyn Rodrigues
Senior consultant, LEED AP ND & BD+CArup
17 thumbs up
March 26, 2012 - 2:08 pm
Thanks again Elliot. Ok, for the green areas. I understand that our streets are not rights-of-way because they are not an 'easement'. But now, another question just came up: Considering that my project has only driveways, not streets, how do I apply for NPD pre 1, since it is required to have a minimum building-height-to-street-widht ratio and driveways and alleys are to be excluded? Remember I don't have bordering streets.
Eliot Allen
LEED AP-ND, PrincipalCriterion Planners
LEEDuser Expert
303 thumbs up
March 26, 2012 - 2:13 pm
If your project is found to not have existing/planned internal or bordering 'streets' as defined in ND, then the NPDp1 BH-SW requirement won't apply since that's only for 'streets.'
Karyn Rodrigues
Senior consultant, LEED AP ND & BD+CArup
17 thumbs up
March 26, 2012 - 2:22 pm
Ok. Thank you very much Elliot!