Schools often cannot afford "choice" sites. We have a school with a 155 acre site, 70% of the site is a wetland. If we include the entire property area based on the lot size, we do not meet the minimum 2% gross building area to site area (even though the building is 75,000 sf.) The owner does not plan to develop the wetland. We do not need to count the wetland area for our openspace requirements or any other credits. We have only developed in the open field upland of the wetland. The wetland is completely out of the limits of construction. Can we reasonably exclude the wetland from the LEED property boundary, or can we be considered exempt from the 2% requirement because the land is being preserved? Would the parcel have to actually be divided or the land be put into a trust for this to count?

Two additional parcels of land were purchased adjacent to this site at the same time with the intent of building a future school, it is easy to leave those out, but it is complicated by the fact that the second school would actually use part of the 155 acre parcel used by the current LEED registered project. I can reasonably justify excluding that portion of the 155 acre parcel because we have a plan showing the future development, but it is not enough area to get the ratio down to 2%. Any suggestions?