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This credit originated in the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, but the Location and Planning Technical Advisory Group (LP TAG) has modified it to fit within the building design and construction (BD&C) rating systems.  The LP TAG has added it to the BD&C rating systems because they previously did not address the walkable environment on the project site and therefore did not incentivize high quality design for pedestrians and bicyclists.  The LEED-ND version has been modified to remove the LEED-ND requirements that are inappropriate for single-building projects and to revise those need-ing different metrics or thresholds for single-building projects.  The credit’s intent, however, largely mimics that of the LEED-ND version: to promote non-motorized transportation by designing safe and pleasant environments for pedestrians and bicyclists.  The building-specific version of this credit is further intended to incentivize catalytic projects, whereby single buildings improve the walkability on the project site and motivate walkability improvements on surrounding sites.

Credit Submittals

General

  1. Register for Pilot Credit(s) Register a username at LEEDuser.com and participate in an online forum
  2. Submit the feedback survey using the link on the USGBC.org credit page; supply PDF of your survey/confirmation of completion with credit documentation

Credit Specific:

  1. A site plan that locates:
  • The LEED project boundary
  • All principal functional entries
  • All sidewalks (with typical dimensions shown), streets, alleys, non-motorized rights of way
  • All public spaces, including squares, parks, paseos, and plazas
  • All off-street surface parking lots, driveways, garage and service bay openings
  • The street frontage that does and does not qualify for the building-height-to-street-width ratio requirements and the corresponding measurements for each frontage.
  • The blank walls per façade and the lengths of each blank wall
  •  All driveway crossings and their widths)
  • All street tree locations and dimensioned intervals between street trees
  • If the project is a historic building, one or more documents confirming the desig-nation status of the historic building.  Acceptable documents may be from the Na-tional Park Service, the State Historic Preservation Office, or local body and in-clude: a public notice such as the Federal Register, a screen capture of a webpage, or another document from one of those bodies.

Additional Questions

  1. Is this credit the best method to incentivize the inclusion of walkability features on a single-building project, or is another LEED credit strategy better?
  2. Do the credit requirements provide the right balance between requiring essential walkability features and providing an assortment of additional, optional features?
  3. Are the requirements overly prescriptive, or do they allow a sufficient level of flex-ibility to create project-appropriate walkability features?
Credits
PC14