Conscious Choice Seattle: We Built this City on LEED-ND

LEED-ND:
Coming Soon to a Hood Near You

Interbay Neighborhood Master Plan

Largely envisioned by neighborhood business owners to combat big-box retailers, the 22-acre Interbay project, which won’t make LEED certification without heavy re-zoning (the site is currently zoned for low-rise buildings with large parking lots), will comprise residential, retail, commercial and light industrial components. There will also be a connection to the city’s bike path network. Link

South Lake Union Urban Center

Centered around the Cascade People’s Center, a small neighborhood community center featuring a garden, rainwater collection system and a bee patch, the 340-acre project will be composed of dense residential, retail and commercial units. The area was reclassified as an urban center in 2004 after a flurry of new development, and construction has continued at a fever pitch. Green features include parks and open spaces, proximity to the new Seattle Streetcar line and a proposed composting center to process neighborhood waste. The pilot’s application was put together by a collaboration of community business owners and residents, and will use the community center as an illustration of the development’s sustainable potential.
Link

Thornton Place

A true definition of a walkable community, the six-acre Thornton Place development will feature nearly 400 condos and apartments, a 16-screen movie theater, 52,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and a 127-unit retirement community. The project will also resurrect a channel of Thornton Creek that currently runs through an underground pipe. The develop-
ment will help convert the car-heavy area into a more pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with walking paths and up to three acres of green space. Link

September 2007 | Green Scene

We Built this City on LEED-ND

Green certification for the neighborhoods of the future.

By Andy Anderson

With the phrase “LEED-certified” creeping into eco-chic vernacular alongside the likes of “carbon footprint” and “renewable energy,” it’s clear that the nature of our living and working spaces is rapidly becoming as important to green America as our fossil fuel usage or how far our organic baby greens traveled from farm to table.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service of realty properties has initiated a new green home design check box to inform buyers of eco-friendly properties. In Illinois, new legislation on its way to the governor could provide grants for developers who comply with LEED building standards.

Back in 2003, the swelling support for LEED was moving some big thinkers at the U.S. Green Building Council to imagine certification that would extend beyond single structures to the greening of entire communities. The seeds of their idea are now shaping up to be one of the largest eco-undertakings of the decade: LEED for Neighborhood Development. If all goes to plan, the certification will essentially be like slapping a certified-organic label on a neighborhood’s welcome sign.

Three hundred and seventy-one initial applicants to the pilot program were whittled down to 234 participants. The projects — which run the gamut from urban mixed-use developments to large-scale, suburban residential neighborhoods — will serve as guinea pigs to test the new standards. They’ll be evaluated in four categories: Smart Location and Linkage, Neighborhood Pattern and Design, Green Construction and Technologies, and Innovation and Process, and issued a certified Silver, Gold or Platinum rating.

Doug Farr, principal of Chicago-based Farr Associates and a member of the LEED-ND steering committee, is optimistic from the get-go. “We had hoped for a hundred. The popularity of the pilot applications was on some levels [already] a success,” he says.

Farr predicts the program will have innumerable ripple effects, including accelerating the adoption of LEED development for buildings worldwide. It’s already prompted an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention analyzing the relationship between community design and a range of public health issues.

LEED-ND is not void of opposition, however. According to Farr, some environmentalists are against the program in principle, believing dense development to be inherently at odds with their values. And whereas LEED-ND sets out a density minimum of seven units per acre (which is needed to support public transit and walkable communities), many cities and municipalities often set density maximums that are lower than that, effectively causing LEED-ND to butt heads with local code — and in some cases making it illegal. Other green building fixtures such as geothermal heating and waterless urinals have their set of perception problems to overcome.

Farr believes the key to winning over LEED-ND naysayers is to alert politicians and residents to the program’s inherent tax-saving capabilities. Through decreases in water treatment and other municipal services, LEED-ND can make a neighborhood not only a healthy place to live, but a winning political strategy as well. “If we can show people that it’s the path to lower taxes, what politician wouldn’t be interested in that?” says Farr.

When the pilot wraps up in 2008, Farr hopes case study analysis will allow the U.S. Green Building Council to make quantifiable conclusions on benefits like reductions in auto and energy usage, wastewater improvements and recycling. The council can then construct a model of a typical LEED-ND development — a user-friendly tool to exemplify the benefits of green design.

Armed with this new information, LEED-ND will be a beacon for those in search of a new, sustainable way to live. “There is a growing demand to live in a healthy neighborhood,” says Farr, “and people are looking for a brand or a standard of what that is.”

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