This project is a visitor center for a state park. The visitor center consists of a lobby, exhibit area, gift shop, auditorium, office space, conference room and break room. The building will have 3 full-time employees. Projections for visitors are about 75,000 per year, which averages out to 207/ day. It is estimated that visitors will spend between 15 minutes and 2 hrs in the building, so we\'re estimating 1hr/ visitor. It takes 8.5 visitors to create one Full Time Occupant. Thus the building would have an occupancy of 25 visitors plus 3 employees, totaling 28. As a state owned project, it is governed by the state\'s Bureau of Capital Outlay Management Manual. The state regulations would require 57 parking spaces. See attached spreadsheet for detail. Because we are doing a LEED project, we received a waiver to install only 50 car spaces. But, the park is a destination for bus tours, school trips, etc., and the program required 5 bus parking spaces as well. This totals 55 parking spaces, which is still below the 57 required by the state. Bus parking is not addressed by the BCOM manual or the Reference Guide. These bus parking spaces are located across the park road, in a pervious paving area, approximately 190\' from the entrance to the building, due to the need for a larger turnaround area. The closest car space is 20\' and the furthest is 160\' from the entrance. Due to the nature of the building, we assume that most visitors would arrive with at least one other person to tour and enjoy the park, effectively making at least 50% of the car parking spaces carpool spaces. And, a bus carrying 40 people has a much lower environmental impact than 20 cars carrying 2 people each. We have the following questions: Can we consider the bus parking as 5 parking spaces for the first part of the credit? Since there are only 3 full-time employees, would we be required to provide one carpool space? Or, should we use 28 full-time occupants as calculated above? Or, can the buses be considered to satisfy the second part of the credit since they accommodate a substantial number of people in very few vehicles, and are reasonably close to the building entrance? Does this scenario make an innovation credit possible? I submit that we have more than satisfied the intent of this credit by reducing the overall number of parking spaces, and providing convenient parking for buses.
Each question will be answered in turn. The bus spaces can count as five parking spaces. In either scenario (3 employees or 28 FTE occupants) the project would be required to provide one designated carpool parking space (see Equation 5 on page 39 of the LEED v2.1 Reference Guide, May 2003). The buses cannot be used to substitute for carpool spaces (see CIR dated 2/2/04). Innovation credits can be awarded for significantly exceeding the requirements of an existing LEED credit. Since up to four points are available under the Alternative Transportation credit, a comprehensive approach is required to earn an innovation credit point for exemplary performance in this area (see IDc1.1 Credit Ruling dated 5/9/2003 for a specific example). Applicable internationally.