Expanding the benefits of green building to include its surroundings, LEED for Neighborhood Development, one of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) newest rating systems, will be rolling out later this summer. Many practitioners and developers are waiting eagerly for this LEED rating system, which is the first to look beyond a single building and incorporate the context of a project.

“Any new project can call itself green,” says Jessica Millman, executive director of the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP) and chair of the LEED-ND core committee. “LEED-ND certification, however, will be a third-party validation that a neighborhood-scale project is in a smart location; has a compact, walkable and connected design; and has high-performance green building and infrastructure features.”

For the last several decades, the majority of new development has taken place on the periphery of metropolitan regions. As a result, a region’s land area has grown far faster than the population growth and many urban centers have seen disinvestment. This type of development, known as urban sprawl, predominantly consists of automobile-dependent, single-use zoning and has negative environmental consequences such as the loss of wildlife habitat, farmland and water resources as well as an increase in pollution and public health problems since all trips — whether to work, school or shops — have to be done by car. While sprawl has slowed somewhat due to the current weakening of the real estate market, zoning codes have all but made this type of development the law in most cities and counties across the country.

There are exceptions to this general rule. Recent trends have seen an increase of mixed-use residential projects pop up in downtowns and adjacent areas as more people see the benefits of living in walkable and vibrant city centers or inner suburbs. Progressive jurisdictions are now encouraging compact development, a mix of uses and investments in transportation and pedestrian infrastructure that help to create walkable urban places. Two sustainable development efforts have helped pave the way for this current shift in development patterns. Guided by a set of 10 principles, the smart growth movement has guided cities and developers to invest in areas with existing infrastructure (to preserve open spaces) and access to transit (so that driving is not the only available form of transportation). New Urbanism shares some similarities with smart growth development, but it has focused on offering a more walkable, compact and connected alternative to conventional suburban development with a greater emphasis on the public spaces, namely roads and sidewalks, and recreating great civic spaces.

USGBC is working with the Natural Resources Defense Council (representing the smart growth community) and the Congress for the New Urbanism to create LEED for Neighborhood Development. As the first national program for green neighborhood design and construction, the rating system aims to transform the market for larger projects in terms of locations, design and performance.

Within a given year, buildings account for more than 38 percent of U.S. CO2 emissions, while transportation accounts for 32 percent. When both transportation and energy-related emissions are considered, a project in a location with transportation options has the potential to outperform even the greenest building location in a drivable suburb.

“The root of LEED’s value is that designers and developers inherently want to do the right things to improve the environment through the performance of their building,” says Victor Dover, Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planners and member of the LEED-ND core committee. “Now, they actually have measurable, objective thresholds against which they can check their work instead of just opinions. The big breakthrough with LEED-ND, though, is that for the first time, the scorecard takes into full account the bigger picture of the neighborhood and region, not just the building. Is this development in the right place? Is it designed to promote walking and healthier lives? Will it lend itself to improvement over time, flexibly adapting to changes in our households, workplaces and society while conserving resources?”

USGBC opened a pilot program for the nascent rating system in July 2007. After 371 projects expressed interest in participating, 239 were accepted into the LEED-ND pilot. Currently, 27 projects are certified across the country with several in Canada and two in China.

Revisions

Shown are the WATERMARK & SAMBUCA BUILDINGS - AFTER REVITALIZATION. These restaurants are part of Nashville’s historic Gulch neighborhood, certified in the LEED for Neighborhood Development program. Photo Courtesy of MarketStreet Enterprises.

The LEED-ND Core Committee has made revisions to the pilot version of the rating system based upon lessons learned from the pilot projects. All revisions have been made with climate change as the driving force behind the core committee’s decisions. As part of USGBC’s consensus-based rating system development, LEED-ND is soliciting public input on the revisions process. The first public comment period ran from Nov. 17, 2008, through Jan. 5, 2009, and garnered 5,188 public comments. The second public comment ran from May 1 through June 14, 2009. A ballot process for the rating system is expected to commence in July. LEED-ND is the first LEED rating system to participate in the ANSI standard development process. As a result, the consensus body had to be identified in advance, so USGBC primary contacts from member companies opted in to participate in early 2009. They will be called upon to vote on the rating system in late summer.

During the revisions process, LEED-ND also has undergone a similar weightings process as the LEED 2009 rating systems to redistribute available points so that a credit’s point value more-accurately reflects its potential to either mitigate the negative or promote the positive environmental impacts of a community. The more-transparent credit weightings currently in LEED-ND versus those in the pilot draft — while not immediately noticeable since the rating system was already on a 100-point scale — are based on environmental impacts while also expanding upon the carbon overlay tool to include biophilia as well as social and public health impacts.

An additional alignment with LEED 2009 will be the availability of regionalization points for LEED-ND projects. USGBC regional councils and chapters will start the process of creating the list of eligible credits in the coming months in conjunction with the two partners and their chapter organizations. Project teams will be able to select credits from the available list that will be eligible for bonus points in appropriate subregions. (Regional points, as with Innovation & Design (ID) points, count toward a project’s certification tally, but they are not considered “base” points.)

The rating system will primarily be used by landowners and real estate developers to help locate and design their larger-scale projects. The rating system has strategically been designed with three stages of certification:

Stage 1: pre-review approval;

Stage 2: certified plan; and

Stage 3: certified project.

Stage 1 is expected to help developers navigate the local approvals process and also to gain community support. Stage 2 is for projects that have been fully entitled. Stage 3 is for completed projects. The public sector will also be key users of the rating system. Ideally, financial and structural incentives, such as tax increment financing, tax abatement, density bonuses, and expedited review processes, will be developed. The rating system also provides a framework by which local governments can evaluate their zoning codes and other regulations.

John Dalzell, senior architect at the Boston Redevelopment Authority and USGBC board member, says that “LEED-ND is giving city planners and regulators the means to screen master plans and projects across a comprehensive set of sustainability values, greatly enhancing the quality of both the process and project.”

Beyond finalizing the rating system for the balloting process, USGBC staff and the LEED-ND core committee will be finalizing the reference guide, submittal requirements and LEED online framework. In addition, educational offerings are under development, including a webinar series this summer and a full-day workshop to be delivered at the Greenbuild Conference & Expo in November 2009. Finally, the Green Building Certification Institute will develop and administer a LEED-ND specialization track, including exam and credential maintenance requirements, as part of the revamped LEED AP structure.

In the meantime, stay tuned for the final version of LEED for Neighborhood Development expected to launch in late summer 2009.