Many urban sites are previously developed and may be brownfields. Investigate and address any contamination and remediation issues early in the planning process.  Doing so can contribute to earning SSc3. 

Locating your project next to a water body or park shouldn’t affect your density calculations, as undeveloped public areas, including parks and water bodies, are not factored into density calculations. 

Physical education spaces such as playing fields can be excluded from development density calculations.

This approach is much easier to document if density information is accessible via a database of the built densities of all buildings in a neighborhood. Without such a resource, it can be hard to locate this information, and Option 2 may be preferable from a documentation standpoint. Obtaining this data can be a challenge if municipalities don’t provide a centralized database of building and property information for existing building stock—including lot area, building area, and number of residential units.

All occupied buildings must be counted in the development density calculations. This would generally include conditioned spaces intended for occupancy, with an FTE above zero. Typical excluded spaces might be:

parking garages;
smoking pavilions;
and maintenance sheds not intended as workspaces. 

Calculate the average neighborhood “built” density, with a target of 60,000 ft2 per acre, minimum, including your project building as well as surrounding buildings. Undeveloped public areas—including parks, water bodies, and public roadways—are not included in density calculations. 

Option 1: Development Density

Choosing to build a school in an urban area provides many opportunities for students and staff to be part of the urban fabric and have access to community services. Among other credits, this could make it easier to earn SSc10: Joint Use of Facilities.

Careful site selection is crucial for obtaining this credit. Projects located in dense urban areas will qualify more easily, whereas projects located in rural or suburban areas, where densities are lower and development more spread out, may find this credit unattainable. 

Weigh the pros and cons of locating a project in a dense urban area, as there may be trade-offs involved. For example, air quality and open space are two variables that could be compromised by locating a project in a dense urban area. However, LEED is generally oriented toward rewarding projects that locate in urban areas, particularly through SSc4.1 and other SS credits.