November 3, 2015 Board of Supervisors Meeting Follow-up
At the November 3, 2015 Board of Supervisors meeting, staff was given direction to provide additional background and justification for the proposed Electric Vehicle Charging Stations ("EVCS") requirements for non-residential development and consider exempting small commercial developments. The basis for exempting small commercial projects is both the economic impact on projects and a presumption that such projects may have shorter duration parking needs.
Research of the County's Land Use Permit and Development Plan applications approved or submitted since 2012 showed off-street parking for small commercial businesses varied from 0 to 12 off-street parking spaces. One project with 0 off-street parking spaces was granted a variance for off-street parking. These projects average 8 off-street parking spaces. Removing the project granted a variance, the average number of off-street parking spaces among these small commercial projects is 10. Based on this analysis, exempting projects with 10 or fewer off-street parking spaces would be reasonable. Staff recommends exempting proposed projects with 10 or fewer off-street parking spaces from the requirement to provide EVCS.
Duration of typical parking need is not information that is required for proposed projects and was not discernible among the projects that were surveyed. In addition, duration of parking need would change over time for each individual property because different tenants may have different parking needs, which would make EV parking regulations difficult to enforce. Therefore, it would be difficult for the County to base EV charging requirements on duration of parking need.
For commercial projects with more than 10 off-street parking spaces, the proposed EV charging requirements would be based on the California Green Building Code Standards Tier 2 Non-Residential Voluntary Measures, which are measures above the State's minimum requirements that local jurisdictions can adopt voluntarily. The Tier 2 Non-Residential Voluntary Measures were developed by the California Building Standards Commission through a collaborative process that included input from stakeholders in the building industry, local jurisdictions throughout the State, as well as various State departments.
November 3, 2015 Board of Supervisors Staff Report
In May 2015, following a referral from the Board of Supervisors on March 31, 2015, Department of Conservation and Development (“DCD”) staff presented to the Ad Hoc Committee on Sustainability (“Committee”)1 the new residential and non-residential 2013 California Green Building Standards Code requirements for electric vehicle supply equipment (“EVSE”), which became effective statewide on July 1, 2015. The Committee provided direction to staff for developing local amendments to the 2013 California Green Building Standards Code for County adoption.
At the September 14, 2015 Committee meeting, the Committee required potential amendments, directed staff to draft additional amendments, and approved a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors on the matter. The proposed changes to the state-wide requirements are summarized as follows:
Changes for new multi-family buildings:
•Increase the required number of EVCS to five percent of the total number of parking spaces provided, where three percent is the minimum required in the State Code;
•Require a minimum of one EVCS for every new multi-family building (three or more units) as opposed to State Code which requires no EVCS for multi-family buildings with fewer than 17 units;
•Require that EVSE be installed for each EVCS in addition to the electrical infrastructure required by the State Code.
Changes for new non-residential buildings:
•Increase the required number of EVCS to six percent of total number of parking spaces provided, where three percent is the minimum required in the State Code;
•Required number of EVCS in new construction shall provide fully operational EVSE as opposed to State Code which requires electrical infrastructure only;
•Require a minimum of one EVCS for every parking area associated with a new commercial building as opposed to State Code which requires no EVCS for parking areas of 50 or fewer parking spaces. (Proposed projects with 10 or fewer off-street parking spaces are exempt from the requirement to provide EVCS)
County Counsel reviewed DCD’s draft and prepared a final ordinance to amend the 2013 California Green Building Code Standards Code to establish electric vehicle parking and charging station standards. The final draft is attached (Exhibit A).
After the ordinance is introduced, the Board of Supervisors must schedule a noticed public hearing to adopt the ordinance. DCD staff recommends the public hearing to adopt the ordinance take place on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. This would allow the ordinance to be available for public inspection for at least 15 days prior to adoption, as required by Government Code Section 20022.6.
1The Ad Hoc Committee on Sustainability is composed of Supervisors John Gioia and Federal D. Glover. Note that Supervisor Glover was not in attendance at the March-September meetings.
Without adopting the proposed local amendments, the County will continue to adhere to the State mandatory standards for electric vehicle infrastructure.