The LEED® for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND) Rating System™ passed the U.S. Green Building Council’s balloting and it was announced at the annual Greenbuild convention on November 12th that registration for new projects is anticipated to open in early 2010.

As LEED has evolved and matured (from the LEED v 1.0 launch in August 1998), the USGBC has undertaken new initiatives. Today, LEED addresses the different project delivery processes through rating systems for specific building types, sectors, and project scopes: LEED for Core & Shell, LEED for New Construction, LEED for Schools, LEED for Retail, LEED for Healthcare, LEED for Homes, and LEED for Commercial Interiors; as well as a rating system devoted to building operational and maintenance issues, LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations& Maintenance.

LEED for Neighborhood Development is the latest LEED certification system. LEED ND will be to development what LEED is, today, to green building.

The Goal of ND

In a major deviation from the USGBC member consensus process that created the other rating systems, the USGBC, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council came together to develop this rating system for neighborhood planning and development based on the combined principles of smart growth, New Urbanism, and green infrastructure and building. The stated goal of the partnership was to establish a national leadership standard for assessing and rewarding environmentally superior green neighborhood development within the framework of the LEED Green Building Rating System.

Accepting that most development in this country is still done within the framework created by the 1916 era Standard State Zoning Enabling Act, LEED ND offers the opportunity to infuse imagination and innovation into where and how we live! Two-thirds of the development on the ground in 2050 will be built between now and then.

A Marketable Green Label

Unlike other LEED rating systems, which focus primarily on green building and construction and offer only limited credits for site selection, LEED ND has been characterized as “an experiment in social engineering” emphasizing site selection (above almost all else) in a rating system that is driven by the Smart Growth Network’s ten principles of smart growth and the charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism. LEED ND creates a marketable label, as well as a guide for better location, less automobile dependent design of residential, commercial, and mixed-use development.

Details of the Rating System

Where other LEED rating systems have five environmental categories, LEED ND has three: Smart Location and Linkage, Neighborhood Pattern and Design, and Green Infrastructure and Buildings. An additional category, Innovation and Design Process, addresses sustainable issues and measures not covered under the three categories.

And four Regional Priority Credits may be earned from the six available in each zip code. These credits are described as integrating the importance of local conditions in determining best practices, however, some have suggested the process of selecting this group of credits ‘ran amuck’ as evidenced by the Regional Priority Credits available in much of Montgomery and Prince George’s County, Maryland, where the result appears to be the best new green building in those counties would be built somewhere in Ohio?

Where can you build ND

LEED ND projects may constitute whole neighborhoods, portions of neighborhoods, or multiple neighborhoods. There is no minimum or maximum size for a LEED ND project, but USGBC has ‘suggested’ that a reasonable minimum size is at least two habitable buildings and that the maximum area that can appropriately be considered a neighborhood is 320 acres, or half a square mile.

Although projects may contain only a single use, typically a mix of uses will give “people many choices for living an urban lifestyle in sustainable, convenient and enjoyable places, while providing the solutions to peak oil, global warming, and climate change” (.. so much for New Urbanism not having lofty dreams)? Small infill projects that are single use but complement existing neighboring uses, such as a new affordable housing infill development in a neighborhood that is already well served by retail and commercial uses, are also candidates for ND certification.

The reality is this is rating system will be primarily efficacious for the redevelopment as new green mixed use neighborhoods served by transit service; most of which will be in urban areas. But the marketing advantage of a green project is already emboldening developers of larger scale projects to design them for LEED ND.

Existing urban neighborhoods can use the rating system, and its application in this context could be especially beneficial in revitalization efforts. Of note, the system gives wide berth to preservation of historic structures. Curiously, USGBC makes a point “that the owner or owners applying for certification should already own, have title to, or have significant control over a majority of the land within the project boundary” and the plan be for the majority of the project’s square footage.

There are tremendous opportunities to retrofit the suburbs through LEED ND, whether this involves reviving old shopping centers and their surrounding parking lots or adding new units and vibrant walkable town centers to existing subdivisions. Increasingly, suburbs are served by transit and thus should be considered good candidates for creating mixed use, walkable developments with the potential to decrease dependence on automobiles.

LEED ND was not designed as a rating system for existing campuses, such as colleges, and military bases, but beyond those prohibitions, great lengths have gone to in an effort to cause this experiment in social engineering to be flexible.

LEED ND is not meant to be a national standard that replaces zoning codes or comprehensive plans, nor has it been designed to certify sector plans or other policy tools. Instead, LEED ND is a voluntary standard, and local governments should consider promoting its use by offering incentives.

Prerequisites and Credits

Interestingly, LEED ND does not define what constitutes a “neighborhood”.

To earn LEED certification as a neighborhood development, the applicant project must satisfy all the prerequisites and qualify for a minimum number of points to attain the project rating of Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum. The prerequisites are very real and include: that all projects are “served by existing water and wastewater” and are within or adjacent to an already developed site (SLL Prerequisite 1); and that all projects with a residential component served by transit service have a minimum density of 12 dwelling units per acre of buildable land, and when not served by transit a minimum density of 7 dwelling units per acre (NPD Prerequisite 2). Additionally, each project must include at least 1 whole LEED certified green building (GIB Prerequisite 1); which might sound like a funny prerequisite, but none of the 3 certified LEED ND pilot projects apparently contain a LEED certified building?

Beyond the prerequisites, credits toward certification are available for projects: on “an infill site that is also a previously developed site (5 points); on a site with existing transit service (7 credits); by providing walkable streets (12 points); or mixed use development (6 points).

Stages of Certification

LEED ND involves projects that may have significantly longer construction periods than single buildings, and as a result the standard LEED certification process has been modified into a three-stage process.

The 1st stage, Conditional Approval of a LEED ND Plan, is optional although this approval may help the developer build a case for government approvals, as well as attract financing and occupant commitments. The 2nd stage, Pre-Certified LEED-ND Plan Approval, is available the project’s new and renovated building square footage has been fully entitled by public authorities. LEED-ND Certified Neighborhood Development is the final stage when the project can submit documentation for all prerequisites and credits, and when certificates of occupancy for buildings have been issued.

Conclusion

LEED ND responds to the philosophical query of whether or not a green building should be constructed in a rural corn field .. and it answers, resoundingly, no!

The intent of LEED ND is “to promote healthful, durable, affordable, and environmentally sound practices” through site location and linkages, neighborhood design and green infrastructure. And responding to the marketplace, the rating system is designed to certify exemplary development projects that perform well in terms of smart growth, urbanism, and green building.

The LEED ND rating system will be to development what LEED is, today, to green building.
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The information for this article was provided by the USGBC. The LEED Reference Guide For Green Neighborhood Development will be published in early 2010.