Lessons for LEED® for Neighborhood Development, Social Equity, and Affordable Housing

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® for Neighborhood Development (LEED®ND) is a rating system designed to encourage sustainable development. I explore why and how most LEED®ND projects ultimately fail to meet the equity goals inherent in sustainability. I survey 114 LEED®ND accredited professionals (APs) and conduct 20 interviews with LEED®ND APs to illuminate the role of the rating system in developer decisions to include affordable housing in their projects. I also explore why nonprofit developers see value in seeking LEED®ND certification for their projects. Although a limited sample, it provides insights into how the certification process affects developer decisions. I find that the LEED®ND rating system does a poor job of encouraging developers to provide affordable housing: Only 40% of LEED®ND-certified projects include affordable housing. LEED®ND APs do not feel that the system offers sufficient incentives to overcome the risks and costs of providing affordable housing. Nonprofit developers might pursue LEED®ND to create savings for residents, but may be deterred by the cost of certification. Most respondents feel that the affordable housing credit should be increased and improved to provide adequate incentives to developers.

Takeaway for practice: Planners cannot count on LEED®ND certification to ensure the provision of affordable and mixed housing in sustainable neighborhoods. The LEED®ND system could be improved by weighting the affordable housing credit more heavily; developers could also be incentivized to build a greater mix of housing. The certification costs could be lowered or subsidized for projects with affordable housing and assessed on a per unit basis. Additional credits could be given to projects that significantly reduce utility costs for low-income residents.

Keywords:

• LEED®ND
• affordable housing
• sustainable neighborhood

Acknowledgments

U.S. Green Building Council®, USGBC®, and LEED® are registered trademarks owned by the U.S. Green Building Council and are used with -permission.

Research Support

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Doctoral Fellowship and the Canadian Studies Program Edward Hildebrand Graduate Fellowship of the University of California at Berkeley.

Notes

1 This credit was formerly named the Mixed-Income and Diverse Communities Credit under Built Project v3 LEED 2009.

2 Other ways of obtaining the maximum 7 points under this credit include incorporating a diversity of housing typologies using the Simpson Diversity Index scoring system. The typology includes -detached residential, duplexes and townhouses, multiunit buildings, live-work spaces, and accessory dwelling units.

3 LEED®ND credit states that to get the credit, the developer can “include a proportion of rental and/or for-sale dwelling units priced for households earning below area median income (AMI). Rental units must be maintained at affordable levels for a minimum of 15 years. Existing dwelling units are exempt from requirement calculations. A maximum of three points may be earned by meeting any combination of thresholds in the following table (table of AMI thresholds follows)” (U.S. Green Building Council, 2014a).

4 The credit is potentially worth more than 3% if a development is aiming for a lower LEED®ND rating, such as gold, silver, or certified.

5 One interview out of a total 21 interviews was discounted due to lack of direct project experience.

6 A lack of scorecard data on the USGBC website for projects earlier than v3 does not allow for an in-depth analysis of the credit prior to this version.

7 APs suggest that this credit should fall under the LEED®ND Green Infrastructure and Buildings category.

8 HUD has required that all Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant recipients must secure Stage 1 conditional approval of their transformation plan for LEED®ND.

9 Project recipients receive a $31,000 cash award to be used to pursue LEED®ND certification, in addition to other accreditation support.

10 The certification cost is currently as follows: registration ($1,500 per project), Smart Location and Linkage (SLL) prerequisite review (-optional; $2,250), expedited review for SLL (reduce from 20 to 25 business days to 10 to 12 days; available based on GBCI review capacity). Once past the optional prerequisite review, there is the cost of the initial stage review ($18,000), which may be expedited for $25,000. Subsequent stages of review are $10,000, unless expedited, which is $15,000. If the project is more than 20 acres for the initial stage or any subsequent stage, it is an additional $350 per acre. If appealing a credit, it is $500 per credit, and again the credit appeal process can be expedited by paying an extra $500 on top of the $500 credit appeal fee.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicola Szibbo

Nicola Szibbo ([email protected]) is an urban designer and lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley.

Color versions of one or more of the figures can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/rjpa.