Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.2

Inquiry

Our project is a large tourist resort located in an area that attracts predominately out of town guests, who fly into the local airport. From there they board shuttles, taxis, rental cars, or buses to reach the resort as few drive directly to the resort. The resort is providing enough parking spaces for only 18% of the total occupancy and employees, due to the availability of the extensive public transit system. This is significantly below the local zoning requirements for parking. Employees and guests are encouraged to use the extensive public transportation system in place of private or rental vehicles to reduce parking needs, fuel use, and traffic congestion impacts. Additionally, Resort studies show that 80% of the guests will be traveling as couples or in groups and sharing transportation, thus far exceeding the 5% of spaces recommended by the USGBC. The Project Team believes that adding carpool spaces for guests will have minimal impact on the number of vehicles driven to the resort, due to the largely group-oriented travelers. In order to meet the intent of the credit, the Owners will provide preferred carpool parking spaces for 5% of the parking spaces reserved for resort employees. By promoting employee carpooling with preferred parking spaces, the resort will reduce local traffic congestion, parking demand, and fuel consumption. Employees are encouraged to utilize either the provided bicycle storage or the vast local public transportation services, including bus lines, shuttles, and light rail. Enforcement of the car-pooling program would be maintained by issuing special parking tags for employee cars in the car pools. It is unknown how this would be enforced if car-pooling spaces are reserved in the general parking area for guests, as most guests arrive with more than one person in the car when they drive. For these reasons, the Project Team feels that the intent of the credit is being achieved by providing reserved carpool parking spaces for employees, and not for the guests, 80% of whom will already be traveling in groups. Providing spaces for employees would be the most environmentally responsible way to reduce the effects of vehicle use at this resort. Considering that 80% of the of the resort guests (non-employees) arrive in groups of two or more , would providing preferred carpool/vanpool parking spaces for 5% of the employees only be an acceptable method to achieve this credit? An alternative approach would be to provide valet service to guests who car pool.