Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: Core and Shell, LEED BD+C: Schools, LEED ID+C: Commercial Interiors

Rating System Version

v3 - LEED 2009, v2 - Schools 2007, v2 - LEED 2.2, v2 - LEED 2.0

Inquiry

We are requesting a ruling about how occupants should be calculated in SSc4.2 for our project, which is a professional hockey arena. A previous CIR Ruling (9/14/2006) established that "Excluding a certain type of transient occupants from the required bicycle stall and shower calculations is permissible per previous v2.1 CIR Rulings dated 6/4/2003 and 8/7/2002. Please include a short narrative indicating the number of visitors who have been excluded from these calculations and an explanation of why this type of visitor cannot reasonably be expected to arrive at this destination on or with a bicycle that would benefit from onsite storage facilities." These CIRs related to projects which were destination resorts and airline terminals. Our project, a professional hockey arena, has similar occupancy concerns that make it impractical to provide bicycle racks for all transient occupants. Because the largest events (hockey games) are held late at night and because many event attendees are coming from far away, it is much more likely for attendees to carpool and use public transit than to ride a bicycle. The project anticipates achieving SSc4.1 (numerous bus lines within 1/4 mile and a rail line within 1/2 mile) and SSc4.3 and 4.4 (preferred parking for carpools and efficient vehicles). In addition, for SSc4.2, the project will be building a new bike path to encourage bicycle use, especially during daytime events. Thus, we have developed ways to address both daytime and nighttime events, as described below: For daytime events, our project team has identified two options to address the intent of SSc4.2 that we would like to get direction from the USGBC on: 1. Provide 100 secure bike racks for 5% of the FTE staff plus 5% of the transient occupants who attend daytime events. Peak occupancy during daytime events is expected to be for tradeshows that occupy the main hockey floor space. For this use, occupancy is expected to be about 2000 people for the peak event time. This figure represents about 300 operation/vendors, 1685 attendees and 15 staff. Thus 100 bike racks represent 5% of this occupancy to satisfy the intent of credit SSc4.2. OR 2. Provide 50 secure bike racks for general-use occupancy and require the Events Operator to set up a secure bike corral for at least 50 additional bike racks for any event that anticipates attendance in excess of 1000 people for its peak occupancy time. Nighttime events will be larger, up to 6000 people (peak concert); but as noted above, late egress will discourage bicycle ridership such that peak use will be less than daytime events. For nighttime events, we feel it is only reasonable to expect attendees to ride a bicycle if they live within 5 miles of the arena. The website CommuterChoice.com notes that the average bicycle commute in the US is about 2 miles, so we feel that this allowance of a 5 mile bicycle commute to the arena at night is an aggressive expectation. Our transportation consultant has estimated that about 7% of attendees live within 5 miles of the arena. Thus, for the maximum event of 6000 people, the number of attendees living within 5 miles of the arena would be 420 people. Staff/vendors at this event would be 315, making a total of 735. The 100 or 50 bike racks that would be provided for the project thus represent respectively 13% and 7% of the nighttime occupants who might be expected to commute by bicycle to the event. Showers will be provided to meet the requirement of 0.5% of FTE staff for all events (both daytime and nighttime). The project team feels that this night-time approach and both the daytime options meet the intent of SSc4.2 for this type of facility. We request that the USGBC either confirm that our approach is valid for both daytime event options and nighttime events, or provide clear guidance on how our assumptions should be modified to meet the intent of SSc4.2.