We are planning to pursue LEED certification for the official buildings. The site areas are being developed for those municipal buildings relocation and as part of the urban redevelopment (or, reorganization) plan executed by the municipal regulations, which include adjacent large residential complex construction.
The site area is located in the urban area surrounded by the mountains and already been cleared for the use of the municipal agencies.
The question is if this site would be classified as “previously developed”, or “graded” sites.
From the credit language, “previously developed sites are those altered by paving, construction, and/or land use that would typically have required regulatory permitting to have been initiate and those that have been graded or modified by human activity” seems to assume the site as ‘previously developed’. But from the second part of the credit language, “Land that is not previously developed and altered landscapes resulting from current or historical clearing or filling, agricultural or forestry use, or preserved natural area use are considered undeveloped land” seems to consider the site to be ‘undeveloped land’.
The last part of language is also confusing. It is saying that, “The date of previous development permit issuance constitutes the date of previous development, but permit issuance in itself does not constitute previous development.”