Dormitory that is No Smoking

It's very interesting to see how LEED Online is interpreting this. I would have thought from the credit language and other sources that a residential project has the prerogative to prohibit smoking—but maybe not? I'm checking up on this with one of our experts.

Brittany,

There is enough ambiguity here that submitting a CIR could be the best option for your team. There are two factors that lead me to believe that your approach of a non-smoking building should be accepted without the added burden of meeting the residential leakage requirements and blower door testing. First, we have had a number of residential buildings meet this prerequisite via a no-smoking policy in LEED NCv2.2 and the only thing that has changed from v2.2 to v3 is that the rating system language changed from a series of "Options" to a series of "Cases". So, very small change but could be problematic given the way the submittal form is laid out. Second, as a dormitory, building management has additional control over the activities in the residential units. Assuming that the non-smoking policy is actively enforced by building management or other means, your team can submit with greater confidence that the smoking policy will be adhered to and therefore the credit intent is met without demonstrating acceptable sealing to isolate ETS. There won't be any ETS the vast majority of the time accept for the occasional rule breaker but I wouldn't bring them up in your CIR.

As an alternative to the CIR you could fill in the submittal form as if there were no residential units and include a narrative describing the specific circumstances of the project and why it should fall in to Case 1. No guarantees here but the worst that would probably happen is that the review team doesn't buy it and makes you show compliance with Case 2 during the construction submission. Still, the CIR seems like a better path given that this is a prerequisite and I tend to be risk adverse.

It's a tough problem and we'd love to hear about the outcome.

we are working on a resort project that consists of 30 chalet type buildings situated in an area of 11 acres. the distance between each chalet is more than 25 feet and that complies the LEED requirement of having a distance of at least 25 feet from air intakes. smoking will only be prohibited in public areas of the project and will be allowed inside chalets. does this meet the credit requirements as the chalets are situated 25 feet away from each other?

Udana, I would say so, assuming that LEED-NC is the correct rating system here, and not LEED for Homes.

Thanks Tristan. but in the LEED online form when we select that there are residential units it asks to upload the results of blower door tests. so do we have to document this under special circumstances or is it a must to conduct blower door tests for hospitality projects?

This is definitely a "special circumstance"... and I should add that it will work in my opinion, but since it's a little out of the ordinary, I couldn't say for sure.