Showers for Retail employees in a Mixed Use project

Correct, most mixed use projects we've seen with a small amount of ground floor retail has been core and shell space built out later. Typically a Tenant Manual is prepared for the future tenants encouraging them to follow LEED guidelines, providing information and resources on compliant materials, products, and strategies.
You'll still need to include retail staff and customers in your FTE and transient counts for bike racks - use CS Appendix 1 for gsf/ occupant. Hope that helps!

Can someone point out where it says that if the commercial area is less than 10% gsf, the project can be considered a residential project and therefore no need for shower access for retail employees? I cannot find this exemption anywhere in the LEED documents?

In the searchable LEED Interpretations database, look for ID# 3111 (from 4/4/2005 for SSc4.4) and ID# 5076 (from 9/10/2007 for SSc4.2.)

You should be able to search just by the ID number. The applicability chart indicates these "may" be applied to more current projects "if reasonable and appropriate." Hope that helps!

David,
We have certified 5 previous residential projects on this basis and have the same understanding of this threshold. Last week I got a comment on a similar project for this credit, denying that we could exempt the commercial space despite it being less than 10% of gsf. We used the CIR you cite above #3111 which was disputed as only being relevant to credit SS4.4.

Then when we used Contact to ask for clarification and referenced another CIR #2500 specifically for 4.2. Again the reviewer has denied that a 10% threshold generally applies to these projects, though she has graciously decided to allow us a one time project exception.

We have 4 more residential projects currently registered. When I indicated that much as I appreciate the one time exemption, I am more interested in understanding the requirement correctly so that I can advise my other teams, I was invited to submit a LEED Interpretation request.

We believe we are interpreting this issue and the other existing LEED Interpretation requests correctly - that if more than 90% of your gsf is residential, you do not have to provide a shower for the retail space but you do include the occupants in your bike rack count.

Since our reviewer doesn't agree with this, what would you suggest we do?

For all interested in the resolution of this issue, GBCI has looked further into it on our behalf and returned the following.

No, LI #3111, LI #2500 and presumably LI #5076, do not establish a 10% threshold for this issue. These LEED Interpretations are apparently still very project specific despite their adoption as LIs and cannot be used to generalize.

GBCI will grant us a project exemption this one time, but does not agree despite all of our past experience (and David Posada's too) that a residential project with less than 10% retail/commercial by gsf can exclude the showers required for the commercial space.

If you are in that boat, like many of our other in progress apartment buildings, you will have to wait for the next addendum cycle to get an answer this question.

Has anyone seen an update to this issue?

This is concerning as we have had this credit approved in the past under this approach (i.e. if the retail space is less than 10% of the overall SF, showers are not required). I have numerous multifamily projects in progress right now and want to ensure we can still achieve this point.

Hi Alexandra,
We're obviously in the same boat. I contacted Sarah Alexander because I didn't seen any evidence of a response in the April Addendum as promised. We have five mixed use projects underway and four more to register that need to know.

She indicated on 5/17 that they have an answer that didn't get into the addendum. However, she didn't feel comfortable sharing it. See her response below.

"Our team raised the issue and managed to get it inserted into the relevant TAG agenda, and I can confirm that a conclusion has been arrived at. I am not sure why it was not included in the April LI release - let me check with my colleague in the LEED department who is responsible for this particular ruling and getting it published, and see if he is comfortable with me sharing it with your team in advance of the next LI release."

Since that was the last thing I heard, I can only assume this means no answer is forthcoming until the next quarterly addendum.

Hi All,
We have finally received a partial response from the USGBC on this issue. They have decided to amend the two LEED Interpretation requests (LI 2500 and LI 3111) that many of us have used successfully since 2005 to establish that if a mixed use building is less than 10% commercial square feet the entire building can be considered residential and adhere to those requirements for SScr4.2 and SScr4.4.

They have changed the ruling in LI 2500 for SScr4.2 as of 7/1/12, to read that "only projects with 1% nonresidential gross floor area or less can be considered entirely residential." There is apparently a proviso for projects that have no greater than 5,000 square feet of commercial space and are still under 10% of gross floor area but that part of the reference has not yet been provided.

They have changed the ruling of ID 3111 for SScr4.4 to read that "if a mixed-use building is less than 10% commercial square feet, the entire building can be considered residential and adhere to residential requirements but only for SScr4.4 and cannot be used for any other SScr4 suite."

So less than 10% is still a good threshold of commercial vs. residential space as long as you are only talking about parking spaces and not about showers.

Please note the ability to change these very old rulings, from already adopted LIs, means that we will now have to re-check every potential LI at the time of use to make sure that it actually says the same thing it has in the past.

This is very helpful. Thank you, Michelle!

And here's the rest of the answer, contained in newly minted LI #10209, "If the total nonresidential square footage of a mixed-use building is less than 10% and no greater than 5,000 square feet, it is acceptable for the nonresidential use to be excluded from the shower requirements ..." but as always not from bike peak calcs.