Our project is a 94,334 square foot research facility located on a university research campus. Most building users arrive in the morning around 8 AM and leave around 5 PM. The building is connected by a new lobby to an existing building, with the new building occupying land that was previously parking for the original building. Although new parking was constructed, it does not exceed the original number of spaces (pre-construction =327 spaces / post-construction parking for both buildings = 309 spaces). We believe we have greatly exceeded the first half of the credit intent for SS4.4 by providing no net increase in parking spaces. This parking arrangement is within University guidelines for parking requirements, which has jurisdiction on the site. The University has a carpool policy which grants carpool applicants reduced rates on their parking passes for surface lots, several free days of parking a month in University structured garage parking, and inclusion in a Guaranteed Ride Home program. Due to extreme parking limitations it does not, however, provide dedicated reserved parking for carpool participants. Participants may park in any available spot allowed by their original parking permit. This policy is in effect because the University has observed that the majority of reserved carpool spaces sit empty, and the Parking System managers feel this is unacceptable since parking on a campus that has over 70,000 users is a very delicate and politically charged issue. Nevertheless, the school is very much interested in pursuing LEED on this and other projects. The school is willing to provide preferred dedicated carpool spaces for 5% of the building occupants, provided that the signage for each indicates that such reservation expires at 10 AM each weekday. The Parking System managers feel that this satisfies the intent of the credit while making full use of parking resources. Does this approach satisfy the credit intent of credit SS4.4?
The project is seeking clarification on the requirement to provide "no new parking" and the marking of carpool spaces. New parking is being constructed as part of the project, but it is replacing existing parking and has slightly fewer spaces than the existing lot. The project can achieve this credit through Option 4 in the LEED-NC v2.2 version of this credit, which requires that no new parking is provided. The other carpool incentives proposed are commendable, but no designation of carpool parking is necessary for credit achievement in this case, since no new parking is being provided. Because the CIR references other projects on the campus in similar situations which may or may not be adding new parking, this ruling also clarifies the question of whether carpool spaces can be used to achieve the credit if the carpool "reservation" expires after 10 am: In this situation, the expiration would disqualify these spaces from counting towards credit achievement. Applicable Internationally.