Council adopts ordinance for electric vehicle charging stations

After adopting ordinances that promise to provide more housing on smaller pieces of land and changing compatibility requirements to allow taller buildings to be built closer to single-family housing, City Council quickly adopted changes to the city Land Development Code to allow some properties to be used for electric vehicle charging stations.

The vote came on Friday afternoon, following a morning of amending and voting on the principal land use changes the majority of Council believes will help more people secure housing at lower costs. Thursday’s Council meeting lasted about 13 hours, with citizens arguing pro and con on the rules for land use. Very few people commented on the vehicle charging stations. Those who did were in favor.

Council Member Alison Alter told her colleagues, “This is an item that I initiated and builds off work that I have done and Mayor Pro Tem (Leslie) Pool and others have done to support EVs in our community.”

The city has not previously had a zoning category for electric vehicle charging, she said, but with passage of the item, “we can have the infrastructure that we need to support the amount of electric vehicles” the city is hoping for. Alter noted that the charging stations are probably not for the average person, but would serve “ride-shares, fleets, other folks who are really trying to transition their vehicles to EVs to help with our environment.”

She said she appreciated work by companies that want to come to Austin to set up such stations. For example, Mercedes-Benz recently announced a deal to locate EV charging at Buc-ee’s locations in Texas. It’s not clear how that would work under Austin’s zoning plan.

Although the city’s fleet currently includes only 337 battery-electric vehicles – which is 6.79 percent of the total on-road fleet – the city is forecasting a significant increase in the adoption of such electric vehicles by 2030. A city spokesperson has said their projections indicate a 300 percent growth in such vehicles, bringing the total to nearly 1,000 such vehicles by the end of the decade.

Under the EV charging ordinance, commercial charging stations – which charge electric cars much faster than those installed in single-family homes – will be allowed in the following zoning categories: General Commercial Services (CS), Commercial Liquor Sales (CS-1), Commercial Highway (CH), Industrial Park (IP), Major Industry (MI), Limited Industrial Services (LI) and Research and Development (R&D).

Under an amendment proposed by the Planning Commission, electric vehicle charging stations may be one level below ground. The Fire Department will develop criteria for allowing charging at such locations.

According to a synopsis prepared by city staff about the new zoning category, “The proposed amendment helps to implement the 2020 Climate Equity Plan goal that 40 percent of total vehicle miles traveled in Austin are electrified, and electric vehicle ownership is culturally, geographically, and economically diverse.”

Staff also said, “The proposed amendment aligns with principles identified in Chapter Three of Imagine Austin: ‘We use and inspire new technologies that create more sustainable communities, while reducing our dependence on environmentally costly practices,’ and ‘Austin is a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.’”

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, who opposed all the changes to the development regulations approved by her colleagues, voted against the electric vehicle amendment.

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