SS Credit 2:

SS Credit 2: Development Density & Community Connectivity

Channel development to urban areas with existing infrastructure, protect greenfields and preserve habitat and natural resources.

This topic seems to be about the pictures below

Bad place to build (Greenfield) and better place to build (Urban areas - New Urbanism principles of diversified uses.) Jane Jacobs talked about this idea in her book.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities - publish in 1969 well before the new urbanism buzz of the late 1990's. It focuses on communities and how they function and the importance of diversified uses. Have you ever been in downtown Manhattan on Saturday or Sunday morning by the Wall Street area. There is usually no one there. It would be nice to have housing interlaced with business below so the transient nature of a use does not create an urban vacuum. She writes about communities they way most people know them to be. Many local zoning prevents a co-mingling of uses and this amplifies the vacuum and prevents what Jane calls the eyes on the street - Local policing or just being neighborly or knowing if you're in trouble someone might hear your call. She knew and felt that a active community at many hours of the day offered a better chance of feeling and being safer and it can deter crime.

This Credit gives a point that take options to build in existing urban communities.

A better place to build in lieu of a more rural setting that may be home species of wildlife and from basic services. The basic services are listed below.

Pedestrian access to these services would be an improvement to vehicular. In most suburban locations many local residents find themselves getting into their cars to go a mile or two because the planning of their communities may have neglected to plan for sidewalks. Have you ever seen someone walking by highway interchange with no sidewalks to speak of and think what is this person trying to do. The cars are dominating the landscape and the pedestrian is alienated by the design of the community.

OPTION 1 — DEVELOPMENT DENSITY
Construct or renovate building on a previously developed site AND in a community with a minimum density of 60,000 square feet per acre net

(Note: density calculation must include the area of the project being built and
is based on a typical two-story downtown development).

OPTION 2 — COMMUNITY CONNECTIVITY
Construct or renovate building on a previously developed site AND within 1/2 mile of a residential zone or neighborhood with an average density of 10 units per acre net AND within 1/2 mile of at least 10 Basic Services and with pedestrian access between the building and the services.
Basic Services include, 1) Bank; 2) Place of Worship; 3) Convenience Grocery; 4) Day Care; 5) Cleaners; 6) Fire Station; 7) Beauty; 8)Hardware; 9) Laundry; 10) Library; 11) Medical/Dental; 12) Senior Care Facility; 13) Park; 14) Pharmacy; 15)Post Office; 16) Restaurant; 17) School; 18) Supermarket; 19) Theater; 20) Community Center; 21) Fitness Center; 22) Museum.

Proximity is determined by drawing a 1/2 mile radius around the main building entrance on a site map and counting the services within that radius.