LEED poised to take a central role in neighborhood design.

We in the engineering profession are in the fortunate position of having helped shepherd into reality a number of sustainable communities and now to guide a key new sustainable initiative—Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND).

The proposed "Village Drive" of the NBC Universal Vision Plan, a comprehensive long-term master plan for the 391-acre Universal City property, home to Universal Studios, Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, and Universal CityWalk.

With recent broad public recognition of global warming issues, interest in sustainable homes and offices has skyrocketed. But greener buildings are only part of the solution. Critical to reducing the ecological footprint of new construction is greater attention to site-wide planning and design.

The newest LEED initiative, LEED ND is a result of a partnership of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Congress for the New Urbanism, the Natural Resources Defense Council, builders, developers, and the environmental community. These entities joined together to develop a national set of standards for new neighborhoods based on the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building.

The goal of LEED ND is to encourage developers to revitalize urban areas and reduce land consumption, reduce dependence on the automobile, and promote pedestrian activity. LEED ND also seeks to improve air quality, decrease polluted stormwater runoff, and build more livable, sustainable communities for people of all income levels.

With the launch this year of the LEED ND pilot program (see "Devising a workable rating system" for information on the pilot program), an important new tool has been made available for guiding development and reducing its impact on the landscape.
LEED ND is a potential boon for developers, providing a standard of excellence as they present their projects to city officials and to the growing body of consumers looking for a "green" way of life.

Creating sustainable neighborhoods
The logical next step beyond encouraging green buildings is to incorporate the tenets of smart growth and new urbanism into planning residential and mixed-use developments. While a number of state-of-the-art projects have come to the forefront during the last decade, what has been lacking is a standardized system for measuring excellence. That has left excellent projects open to the criticism of "green-washing."

LEED ND provides this much-needed standard of measurement for sustainable communities by incorporating LEED principles on a project-wide scale—from site selection and land planning to creative uses of green construction and technology. The rating system provides a way to quantify and measure efforts to revitalize existing urban areas, reduce land consumption, cut dependence on cars and promote pedestrian activity, reduce polluted stormwater runoff, improve air quality, and decrease dependence on non-renewable resources. Following are some examples:

Smart location and linkage—LEED credits can be earned in the earliest stages of site selection by redeveloping an urban infill or brownfield site or selecting a site near jobs and transit. Sites with sufficient water and wastewater infrastructure already in place gain credits, as do sites that avoid floodplains. Credits are available for a site design that creates the least disturbance to endangered species and natural resources such as wetlands and water bodies.

Neighborhood pattern and design—Projects are encouraged to place retail uses within a half-mile of housing to encourage walking. Other LEED design features to reduce dependence on the automobile include walkable street designs with high levels of internal connectivity, public and active spaces within walking distance of 90 percent of dwellings, and bike path networks. Reduced parking footprints also gain credits for reducing imperviousness and associated polluted stormwater runoff.

Green construction and technology—LEED design elements include minimizing site disturbance through site design and during construction. Wetlands and habitat restoration gain credits. Water quality and water conservation measures range from reducing the quantity and rate of stormwater runoff via reuse, infiltration, or evapotranspiration to grey water and stormwater reuse, wastewater management, and creative use of landscaping.

Enhancing project approvals and marketability
The concept of a project-wide LEED development is still new to the development community. While many developers are well aware of LEED in new building construction (LEED NC), most are either completely unaware or have a limited understanding of the LEED rating system for an entire neighborhood development.
Yet this new opportunity for LEED certification is becoming increasingly advantageous for developers to pursue—particularly in infill markets.

For starters, following the tenets of LEED ND will make these environmentally sensitive projects more palatable to community interests, giving developers a leg up in gaining community support for their projects as they navigate the approvals process.

LEED neighborhoods also will be more appealing to those who want to live in a sustainable community. Younger, socially conscious users/buyers increasingly are interested in "living green." The typical green homebuyer is 35 to 50 years old with a college degree, a highly attractive demographic to developers. According to a recent study by Green Builder Media and Imre Communications, these homebuyers are willing to pay 11 percent to 25 percent more for environmentally friendly homes.

And finally, by following the tenets of New Urbanism in creating a community that promotes walking to nearby shops and services, these developments offer a very livable lifestyle. LEED-rated communities stand to gain better returns for the developer in terms of higher rents and higher sales and leases.

Psomas is part of a team working on the NBC Universal Vision Plan, a comprehensive, long-term master plan for the 391-acre Universal City property, home to Universal Studios, Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, and Universal CityWalk. Developer Thomas Properties Group is working with property owner NBC Universal on a plan to transform a 124-acre portion of the studio’s backlot into a distinctive new village neighborhood that has been accepted into the LEED ND pilot program.

According to President and CEO Jim Thomas, "This village will offer an exciting opportunity to plan for sustainability in the early stages of a developing project." A walkable neighborhood of about 2,900 residential units will be clustered into three distinct villages. A town center will allow neighbors to walk or bike instead of drive to 115,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving dining and retail shopping opportunities. A shuttle system will connect residents to the transit station located less than a half-mile away. Buildings will be sited to be sensitive to existing neighbors’ views, and 35 acres will be preserved for open space, hiking trails, and parks.

Another LEED ND pilot project that Psomas is working on is Sahuarita, an 8-acre infill parcel located on the outskirts of Tucson, Ariz. The proposed development of 54 homes by Key to Own will exhibit the benefits of building within the limits of existing development to conserve natural resources and maximize existing infrastructure. The neighborhood design will provide walkable streets, a bicycle network, and high levels of internal connectively to encourage physical activity, social interaction, and optimized land use. A critical design element is conservation of an existing wash/wetlands as a natural amenity.

Going beyond specific projects, the city of Los Angeles expects LEED ND concepts to be a valuable tool as the city plans for changes to its urban core. An entire, 438-acre specific plan area north of the city’s downtown is one of the LEED ND pilot projects. The largely industrial area near the Los Angeles River is in transition as Los Angeles’s downtown experiences an increasing trend toward residential development replacing vacant or underutilized commercial and industrial uses. With a multitude of developers and an already built-up urban infill area, this is far different from the typical master-planned community. But it is "a wonderful opportunity to play out LEED ND concepts in an urban environment," said Claire Bowin from the Planning Department’s Citywide Division.

Making a significant contribution to future generations
The advent of LEED ND offers civil engineers and land planners the opportunity to take a principal role in incorporating innovative concepts to achieve LEED ratings for their clients’ projects and shape entire sustainable communities in the process.

LEED ND offers those of us in the civil engineering and land planning disciplines the opportunity to use our talents to improve the built environment and make a significant contribution to future generations. The results of our design efforts will outlast us all and must stand on their own. If we don’t work to ensure balance between the natural and built environment, who will?

Blake Murillo, P.E., LEED AP, is the CEO of Psomas, a civil engineering firm providing services to the land development, water, and transportation markets in the Western United States. He is on the LEED for Neighborhood Development Corresponding Committee. Sean Vargas, P.E., is a vice president of Psomas and principal in charge of the overall engineering effort for the NBC Universal Vision Plan. Psomas provides in-house LEED training and actively encourages its employees to pursue accreditation by the USGBC. They can be reached at bmurillo@psomas.com and svargas@psomas.com.

Devising a workable rating system

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) launched a LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND) Pilot Program in early 2007 to ensure that the new rating system would be a practical and effective tool. Originally, a maximum of 120 projects were to be accepted into the pilot program. Because of overwhelming interest, however, additional resources were made available to allow all 371 applicants to participate.

In terms of eligibility for the pilot program, there was no minimum or maximum project size and no strict definition of what would comprise a neighborhood. Eligible projects could range from entire neighborhoods, to portions of neighborhoods, to multiple neighborhoods. Smaller, single-use infill projects can earn certification, as well as large and mixed-use developments. The only requirement is that projects meet all prerequisites and could anticipate earning the minimum number of points for LEED certification.

Certification stages
Because projects in the LEED ND program may have significantly longer construction periods than single buildings, the standard LEED certification process has been modified. The LEED for Neighborhood Development Core Committee wanted to be able to provide developers with some form of approval even at the early, pre-entitlement stage. As a result, a three-stage certification process was created, which includes the following:

Stage 1: Optional Pre-review—This stage is available for projects prior to beginning the entitlement process. If a plan receives pre-review approval, a letter will be issued stating that if the project is built as proposed, it will be able to achieve LEED ND certification. A letter of this nature will undoubtedly help developers in building support among approval agencies, the environmental community, and local residents.

Stage 2: Certification of an Approved Plan—This stage is available after the project has been granted any necessary approvals and entitlements.

Stage 3: Certification of a Completed Neighborhood Development—This step takes place when construction is complete or nearly complete.

If a project has submitted for at least one stage of certification during the pilot program, it will be able to complete subsequent stages of certification by either submitting under the pilot version of the rating system or under the post-pilot version. Participation in the pilot program is not a guarantee that a project will be certified; successful certification will depend on a project’s achievement of individual prerequisites and credits.

Final approvals
The LEED ND pilot program is expected to conclude at the end of 2008. Based on feedback gathered during the pilot program, the rating system will be revised to improve its applicability to the marketplace. After circulation for public comment, the revised rating system will then be balloted according to the USGBC’s consensus process and submitted for approval to the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council. It is expected that the full LEED ND program will launch in 2009.  (return to story)