Local Government Leveraging of LEED for Neighborhood Development

Guest Author: Eliot Allen, AICP, LEED ND-AP, CNU-A, Principal, Criterion Planners

Local governments have a new tool for accelerating the sustainability of their growth and redevelopment. Rather than capturing green benefits at only the individual building level, the LEED for Neighborhood Development (ND) program now allows communities to help plan and certify sustainable development at the neighborhood or district scale. Cities, counties, and other local agencies have led the nation for years in green building certification and sustainable transportation promotion. Now with LEED-ND they have an additional tool for significantly increasing the geographic extent and cumulative impact of local green leadership.

LEED-ND: An Overview

LEED-ND integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green construction into a set of 56 prerequisites and credits. These are organized in the rating system according to three elements of a neighborhood's character: where, what, and how. The 'where' element is a neighborhood's location efficiency relative to the surrounding community and region. The 'what' element represents neighborhood uses, amenities, and services. And the 'how' element refers to the materials and methods used to construct and operate neighborhoods over their useful lives. With this where, what, and how approach, the ND rating system focuses on six sustainable development objectives:

• Location efficiency.
• Sensitive resource protection.
• Compact, complete, and connected design.
• Social equity and public health.
• Energy efficiency and climate protection.
• Water efficiency and protection.

To date, dozens of ND projects have been completed or are underway throughout the U.S. Since 2007, 71 projects in 28 states and the District of Columbia have been certified, and at present, 37 projects in 20 states and DC are registered for certification review. From an environmental performance perspective, these projects are notably occurring in locations with twice as much population density as average urban areas, and with more than double the average share of walk, bike, and transit commuting to work. With these kinds of built environment and travel advantages, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from ND projects have been as much as 25% below regional averages.

Steps in Local Government Leveraging

To realize these and other triple bottom line benefits, the process of local leveraging of LEED-ND can be organized into three basic steps:

• Identification of lands within a jurisdiction that meet minimum location requirements.
• Catalyzing projects in those eligible areas.
• Increasing the supply and quality of eligible areas over time.

The leveraging process begins with identification of lands that are efficiently located relative to current infrastructure and development as required by ND. These include infill sites and properties within walking distance of transit and neighborhood services. Any sensitive environmental resources on these lands, such as critical wildlife habitat, must also be protected. This step produces inventories of constrained and unconstrained lands that are location-eligible for ND.

The second step in local leveraging is catalyzing ND projects in eligible areas. This may include rezoning some areas to raise local maximum allowable densities up to the minimum ND densities of seven dwellings per acre or 0.5 floor to land area ratio (FAR) for non-residential buildings (or 12 dwellings/acre and 0.8 FAR near high-frequency transit). There may also be other barriers in local codes that prevent or inhibit ND credit achievement unless removed or altered, such as off-street parking standards that favor autos instead of multi-modal travel. Further, some ND features may need to be enabled by adding new provisions to a local code, such as siting standards for renewable power generation equipment.

In addition to aligning zoning and land development codes with ND criteria, local governments can catalyze ND projects with a variety of incentives in eligible areas, including:

• Expedited processing of permits.
• Financial assistance that ranges from permit fee waiver or reduction to provision of tax credits.
• Bonus zoning of features such as density and building height.
• GIS technical assistance with measurement of the vicinity surrounding a project, e.g. required pedestrian network analysis.

Once code barriers are removed and incentives are in place, local governments can require varying degrees of ND consideration by private and public land developers in eligible areas. This can range from  voluntary consideration of ND registration up to mandatory certification at a specified level, such as Silver, and requiring minimum points for place-based priority issues, such as achievement of the  stormwater management credit in a stressed watershed.

The third and final leveraging step is enlarging eligible areas over time, and improving their conditions in ways that raise ND project scores. This can include strategic land-use and transportation changes that create new eligibility for a greater portion of a jurisdiction, or something as simple as sidewalk construction that shortens walk distances from project sites to neighborhood amenities.

Agencies around the country have begun to leverage ND in pursuit of sustainability goals, including the following examples:

• California Dept of Transportation. As part of its Smart Mobility initiative, Caltrans has adopted ND as a recommended approach to place types that support multi-modal travel.
• Nashville TN. To incent development in its Gulch district, Nashville awards up to four bonus stories of building height to ND projects.
• Kane County IL. This suburban Chicago jurisdiction reduces its road impact fee on developments to the extent they conform with ND-derived thresholds of use mix, density, and walkability.
• East Lansing MI. Development projects receiving 15% or more of their total cost from municipal financial assistance sources must achieve ND Silver certification.

One of the best ways to structure and implement the local leveraging process is through an ND overlay zone. Such a zone can define the geography of eligible areas, provide development standards aligned with ND thresholds, and offer incentives for ND certification. Importantly, maintenance of the overlay zone can include its expansion and improvement through updates of land-use and transportation plans, capital improvement investments, and public service upgrades.

Resources

For local governments considering ND leveraging, the following resources are available:

• The ND Rating System is downloadable free from USGBC.
• The ND Reference Guide is available from USGBC for a fee HERE.
• USGBC offers a Local Government Guide to ND at HERE.
• USGBC education provider Criterion Planners offers the workshop Local Government Leveraging of ND that includes the rating system annotated with local government interface points, and a model ND overlay zoning ordinance.

With these and related resources, local governments now have an unprecedented opportunity to foster sustainability at the neighborhood or district scale, and, in doing so, realize the full potential of LEED-ND to deliver a more livable future.