Hello! I am new to the topic and wondering if the project I am working on can achieve this credit. The project (new construction office building) is located in Berlin and does only provide garage parking within the two underground floors of the building. The local code does only demand a project to provide "sufficent" parking for disabled people. It doesn't state a specific number so it leaves the project team to come up with a reasonable number of parking spaces. Apart from that the local code does not demand any ordinary parking spaces at all. So the choice about the number of parking lots is fully at the project developers' disposal.
1.: To calculate the baseline using the "Transportation planning handbook", I should use the "leasable area" excluding the underground floors, right? The gross floor area wouldn't be appropriate, would it? (I don't seem to find the answer in the credit itself)
2.: The leasable area amounts to ~43.400 m² which leaves me with 1301 parking lots according to the "Transportation planning handbook". So reducing it by 40% or 80% would result in a number of 780 or 260 parking lots, respectively. The garage itself offers only 151 parking lots, so the way I see it, the project achieves exemplary performance and receives 2 credits here. -> Am I wrong and the project doesn't earn any point because it does technically exceed the local code? (since the local code doesn't dictate any specific number of parking spaces)
3.: Furthermore there is talk to make the whole garage only accessible to electric vehicles. This wouldn't interfere with this credit, would it? If anything it would add to it, since there must be preferred parking anyway, right? Would there be a chance to get an innovation point from making the whole garage accessible only to electric vehicles?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
371 thumbs up
December 4, 2018 - 9:22 am
Hi Benjamin,
1. You should use the gross floor area, but exclude parking levels. Unless otherwise specified, LEED always references gross floor area (and parking area is not considered part of gross floor area).
2. I guess this would technically come down to whether the code does not have a minimum, or has a minimum of zero non-disabled parking spaces. If there's no minimum that part of the credit doesn't apply, if there's a minimum of zero you're exceeding it. But it seems to me that the project is meeting the credit intent by providing a big reduction from the base ratio and not the excess free parking that creates an incentive to commute by car, so I think you can submit this credit in good faith even if the local code issue is a gray area.
3. That wouldn't interfere with this credit - you would still need to set aside preferred parking for carpool vehicles, but that could be within an already restricted parking area. There's no established innovation credit for electric vehicle parking only, probably because there's not a big enough EV market in the US yet to make that a viable option...are you also providing charging at all parking spaces?
Benjamin Weise
CSD Engineers16 thumbs up
December 6, 2018 - 3:00 am
Thanks for your answer Emily!
1. If gross area is being used we'll have an even bigger reduction from the base ratios, which is nice. Thanks for the advice!
2. The code simply doesn't specify a number of parking lots. It's up to the project team to decide how many will be developed. The only part that could be interpreted as a minimum number is the following: "Provide sufficient parking lots for disabled people". But then again there is no defined number or formula one could use to calculate them. It's basically open for interpretation.. Regarding the credit intent I actually see it the same way as you do and will submit the credit. Thanks for your view on this!
3. The idea is to provide car charging at every parking lot in the garage and make the whole garage only accessible to electric vehicles (apart from the ones for disabled people). The decision isn't final yet but it looks as if it'll go through. Do you think this could be an innovation point?
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
371 thumbs up
December 6, 2018 - 9:29 am
For an innovation credit, it would be a new strategy you'd have to propose...it's certainly going above and beyond the base credit requirement and should have a real impact on air quality and availability of charging infrastructure. But it;s not a credit where USGBC has typically allowed exemplary performance. Worth a try but I wouldn't count on it.