Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.2

Inquiry

LEED NC 2.1 states that covered bike storage is required for 15% of the building occupants in a residential building. We believe that our project will meet the intent of the credit without providing this storage as covered. Instead,we are providing more bike storage capacity than required by LEED.\nThe intent of the credit is to "reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use"; bike storage is meant to reduce automobile use to and from the occupant\'s workplace, by encouraging use of bicycles.\nOur project consists of a student residential building on a university campus. On a campus setting such as this the "workplace" of the residents is within a 5 minute walk.\nThe project as designed provides bike racks with capacity for 64% of the building occupants. This is 320% beyond the 15% required by LEED. These bike racks, however, are not covered.\nOur argument is that covering the bike racks will not effect whether students use bicycles or cars on campus; having uncovered bike racks will not increase the use of automobiles. On rainy days, the residents will simply walk as their alternative means of transportation.\nPlease note that the project is located in Southern California ; the average rainfall in this area is less than 15 inches/year, all within a limited time period. Also, the campus is deliberately set up so that driving to and from classes is not practical; students either walk or ride bikes.\nIn our assessment, the provision of ample bike storage, coupled with campus policies that actively discourage automobile use, and temperate weather, will ensure the significant reduction in automobile use that will meet the credit intent.\nA similar argument was made regarding a campus setting and the definition of "workplace" for the parking capacity credit (SS4.4 Ruling dated 2/7/05).\n