I have a question concerning LEED projects with associated parking decks. If this question has been answered elsewhere, I have not been able to find it, so please point me in the direction! I have done several LEED projects, but none have had a deck component.

We are pre-programming for a project that includes a Police Station and a parking deck on a tight urban site. The parking deck will have all of the parking for the building and may have a few regularly occupied spaces in the deck used by the occupants of the Police Station (there is a bike shop component). It has not been determined yet if the station and deck will be connected or if they will be separate buildings. They will, no matter the configuration, be separately metered.

I know that the parking deck cannot be certified in and of itself, but in reading the MPR additional guidance the deck should be included in the LEED site boundary and the "parking", but not necessarily the "parking structure" should be included in the certification. I have a few questions:

If they are not separate buildings, how do I count the gross square footage? Take out the sf of the parking structure/spaces, but leave in the area of the used spaces (like the bike shop)?

I can understand the credits where parking is involved and how those work. But for other credits, like those that calculate water usage, the energy model, the materials used in the building, is the deck included in those calculations? Or is all of that excluded (I can see how this might be a issue documenting during construction with the amount of materials used where)? Or would the uses (bike shop, etc.) that are located in the deck still count?

I didn't know what others of you have done or if this is one of those instances where I need to contact USGBC ;). Thanks for any help!