Several diverse uses inside the airport - can I count these?

Hi all ! 

I'm asking myself the same question, I'm working on an education project that is located close to a Walmart supercenter. Inside the supercenter, there are different uses that either belong to Walmart (Grocery store, garden center) or that rent space to Walmart (pharmacy, hairdresser).

Can I count the Grocery Store and the Garden Centre as different uses (Since they are both under the Walmart brand)?

Can I count the hairdresser and pharmacy which are in the building, but don't belong to Walmart? 

Thanks for the help !

HI Aleksandra,

There is a LEED guide specific to airport projects that is available by request from USGBC/GBCI. Your project would probably benefit from its guidance on certain credits as there are some more tailored, amended requirements specifically for these unique settings. For this credit, here's what it states:

Surrounding Density & Diverse Use

Question/Clarification Item

Meeting the intent of the Surrounding Density and Diverse Use credit at an airport can be tricky, as a result of land use planning requirements by FAA, noise ordinances, and other barriers that may prevent many of the LEED approved uses.

Considerations

USGBC is working with subject matter experts and our LEED liaison to consider these challenges and provide a pathway to meeting the requirements of this credit specific  to  airports. While we work through this process, please arrange a call with us to discuss the best option for your project.

Please consider the following points for airport terminal projects:

Option 1

• Consider drawing a radius around multiple entrances to identify services that are within ½ mile radius.
• Multiple basic services located within the project boundary may be included as long as they are 50% or less than the total required. It is important  to note that all basic services must  be located within a permanent storefront. Services located at kiosks would not be allowed.
• Currency exchange could only be allowed under bank basic service category if more than one service was provided at this location (i.e. - currency exchange and ATM).
• Place of worship inside of the Taxi Stack may be allowed as long as it has a permanent dedicated location.
• Certain "spas" may be allowed as a beauty salon as long as they provide more than one service and they are located within a permanent storefront (i.e. - nails and hair).
• It is possible that a hotel that is within½ mile walking distance of the airport terminal project could qualify as one of the diverse uses.
• Services that are accessible by people-mover shuttles can be used if the shuttle time is on average 10 minutes.

Option 2

• USGBC has determined that as the runway areas are not public roadway, park, right-of­ way, etc. they are considered buildable land for the purposes of this credit. The LEED definition being: "the portion of the site where construction can occur, including land voluntarily set aside and not constructed on. When used in density calculations, buildable land excludes public rights-of-way and land excluded from development by codified law." Therefore runway areas are not able to be excluded.
• However, it is understood that airport campuses closer to developed areas are more likely to meet the intent of the credit as a whole for "encouraging development in areas with existing infrastructure. To promote walkability, and transportation efficiency and reduce vehicle distance traveled." Therefore it has been determined that the "site" may be defined as the airport property, and the calculating density can be based on the land within¼ mile (400m) of the airport property versus the project's individual LEED Project Boundary.

Hope that helps.

For Priscillia, for a single Walmart, the grocery and garden aspects would not usually be considered as separate counts; I do believe (and pretty sure I've done it before) that you should be able to count the pharmacy and salon as separate. They usually operate on their own like you said, have different hours, etc. That's my take, anyway. If it's one of those mega locations it may be worth asking LEED Coach to be sure, as those locations really are like 3 fully separate stores (grocery, garden, retail) in one place, even though they are all part of Walmart in general. When it's the case of most other locations that really only have mini/partial groceries or limited other sections, I do not believe it would be accepted.