HomeMy WebLinkAboutITEM V-DMemorandum
WASHINGTON
To: Planning and Community Development Committee
From: Hillary Taylor, Senior Planner
CC:
Date: February 17, 2011
Re: Electrical Vehicle Infrastructure Ordinance, request for direction on scope of work
Background
The State legislature required communities located along the 1-5 corridor to implement
changes to their respective zoning ordinances to allow the placement of electrical vehicle
infrastructure. The City is not required to financially provide the infrastructure but is required
to allow the infrastructure to be provided by others. The City of Auburn is required to make
this change by July 11th of this year (SSHB 1481).
The legislature required the Washington State Department of Commerce and the Puget
Sound Regional Council (PSRC) to collaborate and provide technical guidance. The two
agencies worked together to create a guidebook and model ordinance, both available online
and previously provided to the committee on August 23, 2010. The City of Auburn can adopt
the model ordinance as written by basically just inserting the pre-made section into a blank
section of our code (likely into a new Section 18.47).
Discussion
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide information for a dialog as to whether Auburn
would like to follow the lead taken by the City of Mountlake Terrace to require that all new
single family homes, and some multi-family homes and commercial parking lots require that
CAPACITY for this infrastructure be provided at the time of construction.
In speaking with Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), Puget Sound Energy, and Seattle
Electric Vehicle Association, they generally advocate that capacity be provided in new
construction because it is not all that expensive and it saves the cost of retro-fitting buildings
or facilities in the future.
As discussed in the model ordinance, there are different "Levels of charging". The PSRC
expects that the most commonly used level will be Level 11, which will be used in single family
homes for individuals charging vehicles at night. This requires the provision of 240V which is
what most new clothes dryers use , and the cost of installing the wiring in a new home to the
garage for this kind of "capacity" is not more than a few hundred dollars additional expense.
Wring for this after the initial construction is complete is not cost prohibitive, but it will cost
more.
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In multi-family construction and commercial parking areas the answer is similar. The
infrastructure for those uses is more expensive, but the wiring is much more expensive to
retro-fit. The information I received across the board is that it is much less expensive to
require that the correct capacity be put in place at the time of construction, requiring that
space be provided in the electrical panel, space should be provided to add additional circuits
in the future, and the correct wiring should be in place. Also, in the example provided below,
the requirement is applied only to a proportion of the multiple family units and commercial
parking areas.
The City of Mountlake Terrace adopted a more aggressive policy as a part of their overall
economic development strategy, as a tool in the tool box to attract clean technology and spur
business development. The City of Mountlake Terrace required that the following uses (see
the table below) provide a percentage of parking spaces have access to electrical vehicle
infrastructure.
Land use type
Percentage of parking spaces
Multi-household residential
10%
Lodging
3%
Retail, eating and drinking establishment
1%
Office, medical
3%
Industrial
1%
Institutional, Municipal
3%
Recreational, Entertainment, Cultural
1%
Other
3%
SSHB 1481 states that counties of 500,000 or more shall have a goal for electrical vehicle
usage of 10% by the year 2018. The City of Mountlake Terrace is a community of 20,000 that
is pretty much built out; they will not see significant new housing starts, only re-development
and infill projects. They anticipate that about 10% of vehicles will be electric in the coming
years, or about 2,000 cars in the community. The City of Auburn will see many more new
homes and new multi-family building and commercial development compared to The City of
Mountlake Terrace, Auburn is a community of more than 68,000, with a projection of 6,800
electrical cars on the road in the coming years.
The provision of infrastructure associated with electric vehicles will likely be an economic
growth sector in the coming years as supported by the state legislative mandate. The City of
Auburn and others may benefit from mandating a requirement that all new single family
homes and a percentage of parking spaces for new multi-family development and
commercial parking facilities provide capacity for electrical vehicle charging.
This is potentially an opportunity for The City of Auburn, but it is also a new cost burden on
new development that has economic development implications. Staff asks for policy direction
regarding whether or not to require capacity to be provided at the time of new construction.
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Staff would like to discuss the following questions at the February 28th Committee meeting
and assuming the proposed code amendment be drafted similar to the model ordinance
created by PSRC and Washington State Department of Commerce:
A) Should the proposed code amendment be drafted without any provisions for the
requirement of capacity at the time of new construction?
B) Should the proposed code amendment be drafted with a provision for the
requirement of new capacity in all new single family homes?
C) Should the proposed code amendment be drafted with a provision for the
requirement of new capacity in all new single family homes, in a percentage of all
parking provided for multi-family development, and in a percentage of all parking
provided for all new commercial development?
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