A private company is developing a corporate educational campus on a previously developed site. This site will include the renovation of an existing building and the construction of three new structures. The local zoning open space requirements for this site require that 80% of the site area be maintained as native woodland. The project has been designed according to this premise so the total building footprint (including any access roads and hardscaped areas) occupies only 20% of the given site. Exceeding the local zoning requirement by 25% percent (as per Option 1 of SSc5.2) would represent maintaining as open space the overall site and thus excluding the possibility of any building development. We feel that the high ratio of the existing open space local zoning requirement complies with the intent of this credit and could represent the fulfilment of the next incremental percentage for an Innovation credit. We seek confirmation on whether the special circumstances regarding open space requirements for this project fulfil credit SSc5.2 and could be eligible for an innovation and design credit.
The project team is presenting an unusual situation in which the local zoning requirements specify maintaining 80% open space on the site. Current credit language excludes sites with greater than 80% zoning requirements, since exceeding the requirement by 25% would mean preserving 100% or more of the site as open space. Per the NCv2.1 CIR Ruling dated 2/12/2009, this project would be eligible for this credit if the development area were 25% or less of the allowable developed area (5% of the total site area in this case). It appears that the total building footprint occupies 20% of the site and therefore this credit would not be achieved.