Our project is unique for a big box store in Calgary and for this client as a corporation. In addition to the various other sustainable strategies incorporated into the project, we are reducing automobile travel and intensifying the site in an urban setting. This project features the inclusion of eighteen townhouse units integral to the 97,390 sf Home Depot building supply store and underground parking, all of which reduce the project footprint. This intensifies the use of the site as well provides a resident population, that lives adjacent to the store, amenities within walking distance, thus reducing the need for car travel for these residents to this commercial outlet. Although the project does not meet the development density requirements of SS 2.0 it does provide a commercial service in an area that includes a single family neighborhood to the north and commercial and high-rise residential immediately to the south. The calculated development density is 24,932 based on the calculations in SS 2.0. We suggest that the combination of the increase in development density and the inclusion of a housing component warrants consideration for an innovation credit.
This inquiry essentially describes a mixed use project that cannot achieve the development density requirements of SSc2, but may address urban redevelopment issues not currently addressed specifically by the LEED requirements for this credit. Reconfiguring a typical "stand-alone" big box store into a more dense mixed use project by incorporating significant residential components may represent an innovative approach and perhaps could provide seed for change in this locale. However, your narrative does not provide enough information to determine whether or not an innovation credit is warranted. For instance, if this is a greenfield development (a development that necessitates extension of major infrastructure), it would be ineligible. To earn an innovation credit, the project team will need to make a case that the project reduces dependency on automobile transportation and creates mixed use opportunities by providing a wide array of commercial, residential, recreational, and service functions within close proximity in a revitalized urban setting with existing infrastructure. For guidance in making such a case, the project team may want to refer to the SSc2 requirements in the current draft of LEED CI (Second Public Comment draft, dated September 1, 2004). Although this language has not yet been approved by the USGBC balloting process, it considers mixed use issues that may be similar to those that your project team will need to address in order to demonstrate achievement of an innovation credit. Applicable internationally.