Our Project does not contain any parking within the scope of work. We are on a university campus and parking for faculty and students is provided at nearby, but not adjacent properties. We are looking to place several ( 4-5 ) charging stations in the loading dock area for use by campus vehicles. We are planning for our Facilities Management personnel to be able to use the spaces to charge their electric vehicles. Also we are looking into the possibility of having other campus groups use small electric vehicles for inter campus trips between buildings. Is there a requirement that you must have these spaces in a parking lot or similar structure to count? Is there a size requirement for the electric vehicles? Does the vehicle have to be a street legal electric vehicle like an EV-1 or can it be a GEM or Think Neighborhood type? We feel that our project will achieve the intent of this credit.
The fueling stations proposed in the request will only serve an existing fleet of short-range campus service vehicles. The equipment required by LEED for this compliance path must serve street-legal (long-range) vehicles, available for use by the occupants of the building or others who commute to the campus. The approach presented in your narrative does not meet the overall intent of the credit. The request also notes that all parking for the campus is provided in common nearby lots and that this project is not providing any new parking for the building. Earlier Credit Rulings (dated 11/4/02, 2/25/03 and 7/16/03) address acceptable alternatives for projects with similar circumstances, and should be reviewed for additional guidance. In essence, the project can provide alternative fuel stations within a nearby existing parking lot. The number of stations must support 3% of the parking capacity that, in theory, is adequate to serve the building occupants. One possible avenue to determine this number is to check with the campus planning department for an applicable formula. Provide documentation to demonstrate how the project arrived at the parking load for the building.