Public Comment on LEED for Neighborhoods Closes

Washington, DC, Jan. 9, 2009--The first public comment period for LEED for Neighborhood Development, the first national certification system for green neighborhood design and development, has closed.

A collaboration between the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), this certification program integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building.

LEED for Neighborhood Development program benefits communities by reducing urban sprawl, increasing transportation choice and decreasing automobile dependence, encouraging healthyliving, and protecting threatened species.

“The feedback we received during the comment period demonstrates a thoughtful participation and will shape the future of green communities and define a new vision of green,” said Sophie Lambert, USGBC’s director of LEED for Neighborhood Development.

LEED for Neighborhood Development is also the first of the LEED certification programs to seek official status as an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard.

The scope of the LEED for Neighborhood Development program ranges from small projects to whole communities and encompasses a broader set of stakeholders in the process. To ensure every group with a stake in their neighborhood’s future has a chance to ratify the new certification program, USGBC is taking the unprecedented step of pre-identifying a Consensus Body that will vote during the Member Balloting process, which will take place later this year.

The Member Ballot will represent the final stage of the process used to approve the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system.