Page 365 - The Engineering Guide to LEED-New Construction Sustainable Construction for Engineers

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• Grade considerations
• Existing area and on-site utilities
• Prior site uses and any existing facilities such as pavement, pads, and buildings

Predesign Site Selection
Predesign site selection can have a large impact on the ease of obtaining many of the
credits. Some of the credits may not seem attainable at first glance, or may be obtained
if there is some forethought about how they may be accomplished. For instance,

• The development density option in SSc2 may be more applicable than expected
for campuses and other projects where large areas of land may be used for
recreational or community purposes.
• The community connectivity option in SSc2 may be more applicable if there are
community programs that the proposed project can support, which will enhance
this credit, such as contributing or supporting “rails to trails” projects or
donating land or funds for the municipality to improve pedestrian access, etc.
• The brownfields credit may be obtained for projects that have some contamination
in only small areas, such as an old UST.
• The project team should check for possible planned SSc4.1 public transportation
access or perhaps develop a unique plan for project-provided access to these
systems.
• All three of the remaining Alternative Transportation credits (SSc4.2, 4.3, and 4.4)
may be fairly easy to accomplish if parking is looked at from a holistic view,
especially in campus situations, where a comprehensive parking plan may be
applicable to multiple projects.

Project Area and Project Boundary
As mentioned in earlier chapters, both the project area and the project boundary are
important variables in many of the credit determinations for the USGBC rating system.
For many projects these are easily set as the lot in question. However, for campus
projects and projects on land areas which also contain other buildings or facilities, there
is some flexibility in determining the project area and the project boundary, or extent of
disturbance. Careful consideration of the project area and extent of disturbance can aid
in obtaining LEED credits and also have a positive influence on the impact of the project.
There is no one good solution. Sometimes it is useful to have greater area included if the
additional space contains beneficial features such as open space or natural habitat.
Sometimes it is useful to have a smaller project area if a goal is to maintain dense urban
communities to better use existing infrastructure. It is important that the project area be
viewed as a variable that can have a positive impact on sustainability and that the
decisions include the various project participants.
There are some cases in which the project area may be made up of land portions that
are not contiguous. This may be common on campuses or other land areas where there
are existing facilities that are to remain or there are utility sources that are shared by many
buildings. It is more difficult to differentiate whether renewable energy sources or other
resources are part of the project when they may be shared by many facilities, both existing
and proposed. The University of South Carolina was recently working on a library