The Support of Bike Parking

As has been described in an earlier Solera blog post, the LEED scorecard devotes a portion of the available credits to issues related to a project’s location. These credits are part of the Sustainable Sites category and deal with topics such as proximity to transit, stormwater management and the heat island effect of the project. Also in this category is the amount of bicycle parking the project provides. The LEED scorecard awards a point when a project provides covered bike parking for at least 15% of the building residents (for a commercial buildings other standards apply).

To meet this credit (Sustainable Site Credit 4.2) the Solera project would need to provide at least 40 bike parking spaces. In actuality, the Solera project is more than doubling the bike storage requirement by providing 106 total bicycle racks located within the building parking garages. All bike racks include an integrated security cable and will be individually assigned to residential units. Because Solera will also have ground-floor retail space, USGBC requires that the project meet the commercial standard of this credit as well. To do this, Solera will provide bike parking for 5% of the retail occupants; occupancy is determined by calculating one occupant per 550 square feet of space. These bicycle parking spots will be located in the retail parking space and be assigned to retail staff.

As a complement to the bike storage, Solera is including a bike maintenance room for resident and retail occupant use. This space will be outfitted with bike maintenance supplies and will provide additional bike parking space for residents.

Beyond LEED requirements, the Solera location is particularly suitable for bicycle commuting and enjoyment. The building is located on one of Denver’s main urban bicycle lanes, Lawrence Street. This dedicated bike lane connects the downtown core with Denver’s two main bike path arteries that run along local rivers: the South Platte River bike trail and the Cherry Creek bike path. These paths are highly utilized for both recreational and bike-commute purposes and connect the urban core with surrounding Denver communities. Living at Solera could make bike commuting to many surrounding employment locations a real possibility - and with the ample bike parking and bike maintenance room onsite there’s no reason not to.