We are fortunate to have a number of projects in the Washington, DC area that are participating in the LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program, which evaluates and, where warranted, certifies environmentally superior land development.  By my count, eight residential and mixed-use area projects have been certified, with another ten (or eleven, if you separate the two overlapping Fort Belvoir projects) registered for eventual rating.  The locations of those certified are marked on the image above with yellow push-pins and named; those pending are marked with little purple blobs.

Certified gold:

• Constitution Square, DC, 19 acres, completed
• Solea Condominiums, DC, 0.36 acres, completed
• The Yards, 42 acres, DC, planned and entitled
• Twinbrook Station, 26 acres, Rockville, MD, planned and entitled
• 1812 N. Moore St, Arlington, VA, 3.6 acres, planned and entitled
• Founder's Square, Arlington, VA, 7 acres, planned and entitled

Other certified:

• Reston Heights, Reston, VA, 34.8 acres, planned, certified silver
• Crystal City Plan, Arlington, VA, 200 acres, planned

Pending:

• Arboretum Place, DC, 4.98 acres, planned and entitled
• Hill East Waterfront, DC, 60 acres, planned and entitled
• Old Convention Center Site (CityCenterDC), DC, 10 acres, planned and entitled
• Parkside, DC, 15.5 acres, planned
• Southwest Waterfront, DC, 47 acres, planned
• Aventiene, Gaithersburg, MD, 180 acres, planned and entitled
• Glenmont Metrocenter, Silver Spring-Wheaton, MD, 30.9 acres, planned
• Belvoir New Vision, Fort Belvoir, VA, 8,656 acres, planned
• Fort Belvoir Military Housing, Fort Belvoir, VA, 576.8 acres, planned and entitled
• Metro West, Vienna, VA, 9.8 acres, planned and entitled
• Mosaic District, Fairfax County, VA, 31.37 acres, planned

Most of these are redevelopment projects, which is good – they tend to have lower environmental impacts, and LEED-ND is designed to encourage them – but quite a few are suburban.  The recession has slowed some of them, unfortunately, but it is great to know that the program has strong support in my base market.  The US Green Building Council maintains lists of registered and certified projects (unless the applicant has requested otherwise) on its LEED-ND web site.

Move your cursor over the images for credit information.

Kaid Benfield writes (almost) daily about community, development, and the environment.  For more posts, see his blog's home page.