Our project consists of a large mixed-use residential and retail building, including 240 residential units in two towers, 12 townhouses, and ground floor retail. We will provide walkoff mats at all tower and retail entryways, and any chemical mixing rooms will be designed to meet the EQc5 requirements. However, the marketing group feels that prospective owners of the townhouse units will not be excited about the prospect of permanent walkoff mats in front of their units: that they will want to select their own entryway mats, etc. Since the townhouses comprise less than 5 percent of the total occupancy of the building, we believe they don\'t fall within the definition of "high volume entryways" within the meaning of the EQc5 requirements. Please confirm that this assumption is correct.
The assumption that the entrances to the townhouses do not fall within the definition of "high volume entryways" is not correct. EQc5 CIR Ruling dated 12/21/04 states that "In evaluating the requirements of this credit, you should focus on the frequency of use of each building entry point rather than the percentage of building occupants served. Any door that is intended to be used regularly and frequently by building occupants should be considered high volume for the purposes of this credit." EQc5 CIR Ruling dated 07/22/03 provides additional guidance about the requirement for walk-off mats for individual residential units. It is unclear from the description of this project where the townhouses are located in the project. Based on the CIR guidance, if the townhouses have individual exterior entrances then permanent entryway systems are required. If the townhouses share an exterior entrance, this may serve as the location for the permanent entryway system as it is the primary transition space between the exterior and interior space.