LEED For Neighborhood
South Lake Union May Become One of the First Certified Green Neighborhoods in the Nation!
South Lake Union is one of over 300 neighborhoods from across the nation that has been invited to participate in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) Pilot Program. The Department of Planning and Development has partnered with the SLUFAN Community Council, Cascade Neighborhood Council, Cascade Peoples Center and neighborhood businesses to submit South Lake Union in the pilot, and we are pleased to share this news. If successful, South Lake Union residents and business may be strategically located in one of the first certified green neighborhoods in the United States.
LEED-ND is a collaboration between the U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Smart Growth Coalition. The rating system integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green design into the first national standard for green neighborhoods. Credits are organized within four categories: Smart Location and Linkage; Neighborhood Pattern and Design; Green Construction and Technologies; and, Innovation and Process. LEED-ND credits are in the same format as other LEED rating systems. Certification provides independent, third-party verification of a neighborhood’s accomplishments in these areas of sustainable development.
The LEED-ND pilot program is designed to test the rating system in the market. The goal for this project is to evaluate how a Seattle Urban Center performs using the LEED-ND standard; assess how LEED-ND aligns with our Comprehensive Plan and Neighborhood Plan goals; identify opportunities to strengthen public policies based on what we learn from the rating system; and, provide input into the development of the LEED-ND standard to ensure that it is relevant to the urban context.