LEED for Neighborhood Development Overview The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) three organizations that represent some of the nation s leaders among progressive design professionals, builders, developers, and the environmental community have come together to develop a national set of standards for neighborhood location and design based on the combined principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green infrastructure and building. The goal of this partnership is to establish a leadership standard for assessing and rewarding environmentally superior green neighborhood development practices within the framework of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System. Unlike other LEED products that focus primarily on green building practices, with relatively few credits regarding site selection and design, LEED for Neighborhood Development places emphasis on the site selection, design, and construction elements that bring buildings together into a neighborhood, and relate the neighborhood to its landscape as well as to its local and larger regional context. The work of the committee is guided by sources such as the Smart Growth Network s ten principles of smart growth, the charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and other LEED rating systems. LEED for Neighborhood Development creates a label, as well as guidelines for design and decision making, to serve as an incentive for better location, design, and construction of new residential, commercial, and mixed use developments. The existing LEED for New Construction Rating System has a proven track record of encouraging developers or builders to utilize green building practices, such as increasing energy and water efficiency and improving indoor air quality in buildings. It is the hope of the three partner organizations that LEED for Neighborhood Development will have a similarly positive effect in encouraging developers to revitalize existing urban areas, reduce land consumption, reduce automobile dependence, promote pedestrian and bicycle activity, improve air quality, decrease polluted stormwater runoff, and build more livable, healthy, and sustainable communities for people of all income levels. The siting/location, design, and construction of new neighborhoods, as defined in LEED ND, will evolve as new research, innovative technologies, and best practices, further define smart locations, ideal neighborhood design, and high performance for buildings & infrastructure. As these new strategies are tested, the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system and reference guide will evolve as well. Project teams must comply with the version of the rating system that is current at the time of their registration. How the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System Works USGBC s LEED rating systems provide a framework that is voluntary, consensus based, market driven, grounded in accepted energy and environmental principles, and aim to transform the market through the inclusion of some emerging concepts. LEED rating systems are developed by committees, in adherence with USGBC policies and procedures guiding the development and maintenance of rating systems. LEED for Neighborhood Development is one of a growing portfolio of rating systems serving specific market sectors, along with LEED for Homes among the first to look beyond the performance of a single building. LEED rating systems typically consist of few prerequisites and many credits. In order to be certified, a project must meet each prerequisite. Each credit is optional, but achievement of each credit contributes to the project s point total. A minimum point total is required for certification, and higher point scores are required for silver, gold, or platinum LEED certification. Unlike the other LEED rating systems which are organized into five environmental categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality, LEED for Neighborhood development has three categories: Smart Location & Linkage, Neighborhood Pattern & Design, and Green Infrastructure & Building. An additional category, Innovation in Design, addresses sustainable design and construction issues and
measures not covered under the three categories. Regional bonus credits will be another feature of LEED ND when it launches and acknowledge the importance of local conditions in determining best environmental design and construction practices as well as social and health practices. Certification LEED for Neighborhood Development will certify projects that may have significantly longer construction periods than single buildings, and as a result the standard LEED certification process needed to be modified. The core committee wanted to be able to provide developers of certifiable projects with some form of approval even at the early, preentitlement stage. They also wanted to ensure that great plans became great real life projects. With these goals in mind, LEED for Neighborhood Development 2009 certification is divided into the following three stage certification process: Optional Pre review (Stage 1) This stage is available, but not required, for projects at any point before the entitlement process begins. Projects that have acquired permits for more than 50% of the total square feet, are unable to submit under Stage 1, and must proceed to Stage 2. If pre review approval of the plan is achieved, USGBC will issue a letter stating that if the project is built as proposed, it will be able to achieve LEED for Neighborhood Development certification. The purpose of this letter is to assist the developer in building a case for entitlement among land use planning authorities, as well as a case for financing, and occupant commitments. Certification of an Approved Plan (Stage 2) This stage is available after the project has been granted all necessary approval and entitlements by all controlling authorities with jurisdiction over the project to be built to plan. The project can also be under construction, or portions completed, during Stage 2. Any changes to the pre reviewed plan that could potentially affect prerequisite or credit achievement would be communicated to USGBC as part of this submission. If certification of the approved plan is achieved, USGBC will issue a certificate stating that the approved plan is a LEED for Neighborhood Development Certified Plan and will list it as such on the USGBC website. Certification of a Completed Neighborhood Development (Stage 3) This step takes place when the project is complete or nearly complete. Any changes to the certified approved plan that could potentially affect prerequisite or credit achievement would be communicated to USGBC as part of this submission. If certification of the completed neighborhood development is achieved, USGBC will issue plaques or similar awards for public display at the project site and will list it as such on the USGBC website. Similar to other LEED certification processes, projects will be provided with a more thorough explanation of credit topics and calculations in a reference guide. Project teams will be required to submit documentation for each credit as described in the submittal sections of the reference guide. Participants will be given submittal templates to fill out as part of documentation after they register their project. The templates will assist projects in providing the requested calculations. To earn LEED ND certification, the applicant project must satisfy all the prerequisites and qualify for a minimum number of points to attain the established project ratings as listed below. Having satisfied the basic prerequisites of the program, applicant projects are then rated according to their degree of compliance within the rating system. LEED for Neighborhood Development 2009 certifications will be awarded according to the following scale: Certified 40 49 points Silver 50 59 points Gold 60 79 points Platinum 80 points and above The LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System is designed to certify exemplary development projects that perform well in terms of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building. Projects may constitute whole neighborhoods, fractions of neighborhoods, or multiple neighborhoods. Smaller, infill projects that are single use but complement existing
neighboring uses should be able to earn certification as well as larger and mixed use developments. When to Use LEED for Neighborhood Development 2009 The LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system is designed primarily for new neighborhood design and construction, whether it be a small or large infill or redevelopment project in an urban or suburban setting, or new development proximate to diverse uses, transit, or adjacent to connected and previously development land. LEED ND has not been designed to certify sector plans or other policy tools. While the LEED ND rating system can help guide improvements and infill development within an existing neighborhood, the rating system was also not designed for existing neighborhoods in which there will be no major renovations or new construction. An adaptation of LEED ND in the future to better respond to the design of social and infrastructure improvements and operations of existing neighborhoods is likely. Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs), similar to those created for LEED 2009, will be developed this summer for LEED ND. They will define the minimum characteristics that a project must possess in order to be eligible for certification under LEED for Neighborhood Development 2009. These requirements will give clear guidance to customers, protect the integrity of the LEED ND rating system, and reduce challenges that might occur during the LEED ND certification process. What is a Neighborhood Development? Based upon research on the historical origins of neighborhood design and current literature on the best practices about where to locate and how to design new development, the LEED ND core committee has developed a rating system for smart, healthy, and green neighborhood development. While there is no strict definition for what comprises a neighborhood in the context of the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System, the prerequisites and credits are certainly calling for a certain type of development and some of the references that guided the development of the rating system are outlined below. Indeed, there is notable historic and current research on the topic of what constitutes a neighborhood and how neighborhoods should best be designed. In basic terms, a neighborhood is an area of dwellings and/or work places and their immediate environment that residents and/or employees identify with in terms of social and economic attitudes, lifestyles, and institutions. The charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism defines a neighborhood as compact, pedestrian friendly, and mixed use. 1 In the 1929 Regional Plan of New York and Environs, Clarence Perry outlined a neighborhood center surrounded by civic uses, parks, residential uses, a school, and retail at the edge within a ¼ mile pedestrian shed of 160 acres. While Perry s diagram does not address some of the sustainable features of LEED ND, such as access to multimodal transportation options and does not guide the location of infrastructure and building form, it certainly serves as a reference point for the neighborhood development encouraged in LEED ND. Victor Dover and Jason King define a neighborhood in Doug Farr s Sustainable Urbanism as the basic increment of town planning where a single neighborhood stands alone as a village and two or more neighborhoods grouped together sharing a specialized hub or main street is a town. 2 Dover and King continue to attribute the vitality of neighborhoods as the key providers of the dynamism and diversity in cities. 3 Dover and King do not include the disconnected, single use developments that characterize sprawl, such as stand alone apartment complexes, subdivision tracts, office parks, or shopping centers in their definition of a neighborhood. Instead they believe that traditional neighborhoods meet all those same needs for housing, workplaces, shopping, civic functions, and more but in formats that are compact, complete, and connected, and ultimately more sustainable and satisfying. 4 The metrics of a neighborhood vary in terms of size, density, population, mix of uses and dwelling types and by regional customs and economics, climates, and site conditions, but Dover and King attribute the following five basic design conventions as integral to a great neighborhood: 1 Charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, www.cnu.org/charter, 1996. 2 Dover, Victor and Jason King, Neighborhood Definition, in Doug Farr, Sustainable Urbanism (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2007) 127. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.
Identifiable Center and Edge to the Neighborhood There must be places where the public feels welcome and encouraged to congregate, recognizable as the heart of the community. A proper center has at least one outdoor public environment for this purpose, designed with pedestrians in mind; this is spatially the most well defined outdoor room in the neighborhood. The best centers are within walking distance of the surrounding, primarily residential areas, and typically some gradient in density is discernable from center to edge. Walkable Size The overall size of the neighborhood should be suitable for walking. Neighborhoods range from 40 200 acres. Most people will walk a distance of approximately one quarter mile (1,320 feet) before turning back or opting to drive or ride a bike rather than walk. Mix of Land Uses and Housing Types with Opportunities for Shopping and Workplaces Close to Home Great neighborhoods have a fine grained mix of land uses and housing types. Any mix of uses dramatically reduces the number of external automobile trips required by residents, and so there is no set minimum to the amount of commercial or office use that should be present. At least three dwelling types are necessary to create architectural diversity. Integrated Network of Walkable Streets A network of streets allows pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists to move safely and comfortably through a neighborhood. The maximum average block perimeter to achieve an integrated network is 1,500 feet with a maximum uninterrupted block face of ideally 450 feet, with streets at intervals no greater than 600 feet apart along any one single stretch. Special Sites Are Reserved for Civic Purposes In complete neighborhoods, it is always true that some of the best real estate is set aside for community purposes including parks and playgrounds. These locations are made significant by the geometry of the town plan. Prominent locations, such as a terminated vista seen down a street or at the top of a hill, should be reserved for landmark buildings. 5 LEED for Neighborhood Development recognizes these features through prerequisites and credits, but also recognizes that many LEED ND projects will have already been designed several decades or over one hundred years ago following different development patterns. The LEED ND guidelines would serve as a framework for new development within that existing neighborhood. Acknowledgements The partnership would like to thank the following funders for their support of the creation of LEED for Neighborhood Development (listed alphabetically): The Blue Moon Fund Centers for Disease Control EDAW U.S. EPA Office of Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment U.S. EPA Development, Community, and Environment Division The Kresge Foundation The Johnson Foundation National Endowment for the Arts The revised LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System has been made possible because of the efforts of many dedicated volunteers, staff members, consultants, and others in the USGBC, CNU, and NRDC communities. Sincere appreciation goes to the staff of all three partner organizations who have worked tirelessly on the rating system, consultants for their work on the pilot program certifications and USGBC s certification staff for their diligent review, and the USGBC Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs), including the experts on the newly formed Location & Planning TAG, for their peer review of the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System in advance of public comment. Finally, the partnership extends its deepest gratitude to the LEED for Neighborhood Development Core Committee members selected by the partners, for the dedication and passion demonstrated in their volunteer efforts to develop this rating system. They are: 5 Ibid, 127-130.
Jessica Cogan Millman, Agora DC (Chair) Bert Gregory, Mithun Architects + Designers + Planners (Vice Chair) Susan Mudd, Congress for the New Urbanism Board of Directors (Vice Chair) Ted Bardacke, Global Green USA Kaid Benfield, Natural Resources Defense Council John Dalzell, Boston Redevelopment Authority Victor Dover, Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning Doug Farr, Farr Associates Tim Frank, Sierra Club Daniel Hernandez, Jonathan Rose Companies Justin Horner, Natural Resources Defense Council Bruce Knight, Planning Dept. of Champaign, IL John Norquist, Congress for the New Urbanism Kenneth Potts, McGough Companies Elizabeth Schilling, Urban Associates