Associated with LEED 2009 NC under SS credit 2, what is the definition of urban site from LEED's point of view and what are the boundaries?

Hello All,
So my project spans several different parcels, although the project boundary does not necessarily run along their property lines. In determining if the site can be called an infill, I am wondering what the status of each of these parcels is.

For example, the project boundary runs along the border of a new street that was put in for the project. The street cuts through an existing parcel that is owned by the project owner but is not entirely bounded by the project boundary. Does the remaining portion of this parcel count as "bordering" my project? The rest of the parcel (a pretty small area) is undeveloped and will remain undeveloped for the immediate future, so I would like to be able to count the developed parcel just beyond it as bordering the project.

How much does LEED care about specific parcel borders? Am I better off classifying the project boundary as the borderlines of all occupied parcels?

Any help would be huge, Thanks

-Sam

Dear All,

We are using the Master Site approach for a development with two buildings to be LEED CS certified. We are at the precertification stage. We have prepared all the applications and submitted for review. However, in the application for the Master Site, LEED Online does not allow us to submit for review stating the error that "minimum 40 points need to be gathered before submitting." How can this be solved?

Hi.
I'm LEED AP but don't have experience for LEED certifications. This is my first time.
I'm working on LEED certification for US army project.
The project consists of 4 buildings : two offices bldg & two storages.

I wonder this project can certify a group of new buildings as a package and be rated as a package and only one rating received.

Accroding to LEED NC Application Guide for Multiple Buildings and On Campus Building Projects(AGMBC, 2005), EQ credit require every building must meet credit requirement independently.

Storages are considered FTE is less than 1, so I think they are not needed to earn EQ credit. But I think the other credit categories(EA, MR..etc.) can be applied to them.

Is it possible to register project grouping all buildings above? or make a group only two office buildings?

This project is applied LEED ver 2.2, not ver.3 and doesn't register at leedonline. US army want LEED ver 2.2, because US army(not GBCI) evaluate this with ver 2.2 directly.

I heard about there is no MPR(Minimum Program Requirement) in ver2.2. So I don't know how to grouped these buildings.

Any comments would be appriciated.

My project has gone through the preliminary review. We had a number of questions related to EAp2. The instructions from the reviewer were to create a .zip file with the original credit submittal, and other supporting documentation.

I have all the responses ready to go, but I don't know where to upload the .zip file to. I thought I could just go to the credit and "file uploads", but when I go there, it only calls for specific files. I have had no luck trying to get this answer through the review team. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Hi, We're currently seeking certification for a combined high school/ middle school new construction/ renovation project that are registered as separate LEED projects but within one campus LEED boundary line. The projects were issued under the same construction documents and are being constructed simultaneously by the same contractor. Both the recycled content and regional materials have been submitted and tracked by the entire combined project rather than having been separated out into individual projects. Has anyone attempted to submit MR credit 4: Recycled Content & MR credit 5: Regional Material as campus credits under the Master Site review?

Our first Homes Multifamily Low-Rise project is now in construction. In order to make Homes function well in a commercial-construction environment, we obviously had to do quite a bit of work to integrate the Homes Low-Rise requirements into our specifications.

We are now in design on our first Mid-Rise project (with several more to follow). I am finding, however, that there are some major holes in the information that I need in order to accurately update our Low-Rise specs to Mid-Rise requirements. It is very helpful that there is an actual updated Multifamily Mid-Rise Rating System with the changed credits, but there are documents available for Homes and/or Low-Rise which do not appear to have Mid-Rise equivalents yet. For example:

1. Updates to the Homes Reference Guide itself. There is obviously quite a bit of additional detail in any LEED reference guide compared to its (freely downloadable) rating system document, addressing how credits are implemented, measured, documented, etc. This doesn't exist for Mid-Rise.
2. Submarket Guidance for Low-rise Multi-family Buildings: This four-page document was the only real basis for differentiating between basic Homes and Low-Rise, so to a great extent it has been supplanted by the Multifamily Mid-Rise Rating System document. However, it contains clarifications to credits that are not explicitly changed in Mid-Rise; do those still apply?
3. Verification and Submittal Guidelines: These two documents (one for project teams, one for verification teams) were invaluable as I developed specs. There doesn't appear to be any equivalent document(s) that specifically address documentation requirements unique to Mid-Rise.
4. EA 1.2 Testing and Verification for MID-RISE states simply: “Meet all of the EPA Multifamily High-rise Program Testing and Verification Protocols requirements.” The T&V Protocols is a daunting document. Our Homes provider has stated that this requirement has been changed, but there is nothing formally available yet.

The Homes provider on this project has told me that they are working on developing some of this information internally, but that they don't have anything formal from USGBC yet. Does anyone know any more specifics about any of this documentation?

Dennis:

I have experienced weak cell phone signal in a brand new 4-story 180-bed long term care facility. But I'm not sure if it is due to the low-e glazing. There are so many other factors that contribute to bad cell phone signal. The building is in a rural area, and it's quite possible that the distance to the nearest cell tower is too far. It may also be due to all the metal in the building, such as the metal deck holding the concrete floor slabs, the rebar in the concrete, the steel framing, the metal studs in the walls, or the sheet metal in the ductwork. As you probably already know, metal reflects radio waves.

To answer your question about the low-e glazing, I don't know of a viable alternative at this point in time. Low-e in itself is metallic. Window films that go on the inside face of the glass are also metallic based. (Window films by themselves without Low-E is not recommended, by the way). If you are that concerned about cell-phone signal, it may be worth looking into a signal repeating system, involving an external antenna and internal antennas spread throughout the building.

An updated version of the LEED Project Submittal Tips is now live on the GBCI website, here: http://www.gbci.org/main-nav/building-certification/resources.aspx#tips. Take a look at the announcement about it for more information, here: http://www.gbci.org/org-nav/announcements/11-12-23/Helpful_tips_for_proj.... Good luck in your submittals!