Our challenge with this credit has been to overcome existing emergency overflow parking lots on our site plan. They are to be available to the campus that our new building will be a part of (there are no other overflow lots located elsewhere on the campus). We would like to know whether our efforts to date will achieve this credit or what further measures we could take. Background: The new Mental Health Facility will be built on the existing campus of Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, BC. The hospital campus has unique parking requirements as it serves a region stretching in a 200-km radius-incorporating a total population of 690,000 and is operational 24/7. The new Mental Health Facility will serve the same area in addition to the larger Greater Vancouver Area population base. Our site area definition for the mental health facility building currently includes one underground garage that is solely allocated for the users of the new mental health building and fully meets the requirements of this credit. Three previously existing overflow surface lots are specifically allocated as such for the existing campus. The nature of the terrain and distance to the existing lots is not user friendly, discouraging (any kind of) parking for convenience. Due to topographic challenges and as an effort to mitigate additional and future environmental impacts, the hospital cannot relocate these overflow-parking areas off of the mental health facility site, therefore they currently exist within our site-area definition for this project. We have successfully addressed all other credits associated with the impacts of these overflow lots. As a result of alternative transportation plans for the new building, the City of Kamloops, at the hospitals request, issued a special approval to reduce the total campus parking count minimum requirement from 713 to 575 vehicles. These plans include: a turning circle for drop-off/pick-up, public transit directly in front of the new building, preferred parking for carpooling and alternative-fuel vehicles, bicycle racks and showers for cyclists. Most importantly Royal Inland Hospital will not be putting in any additional parking in the future as a result of the above. CIR: We believe the intent to reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use has been met and surpassed, both by the new mental health facility transportation plan and the reduced parking capacity for the hospital campus, specifically addressing the goal of credit 4.4 to reduce available parking as an incentive for alternative modes. Will our efforts to date achieve this credit?
While credits are not achieved through the CIR process, your described approach to reducing impacts from automobile use is reasonable and consistent with the intent of the credit. The existence of additional parking facilities on your site offers you two possibilities for LEED certification. If the overflow lots are not serving your building, you can exclude that portion of the site from your LEED application (as long as you exclude that area consistently for all credits). Or, if your project is modifying the lots in some way to improve environmental performance, such as stormwater management or reduced heat island effect, you can include the lot areas but must also account for the number of parking spaces that are provided within the overflow lots.