The Council adopts a system of electric vehicle charging stations

After adopting ordinances promising more housing on smaller parcels of land and changing compliance requirements to allow high-rise buildings to be built near single-family residences, the City Council quickly adopted changes to the city’s land development code to allow some properties to be used for electric vehicle charging stations.

The vote came Friday afternoon, following a morning of amendment and vote on major land use changes that the council majority believes will help more people secure housing at lower costs. Thursday’s council meeting lasted about 13 hours, with citizens discussing the pros and cons regarding land use rules. Very few people commented on vehicle charging stations. Those who did were supportive.

“This is the item I started that builds on the work I have done and what Mayor Pro Tem (Leslie) Ball and others have done to support electric vehicles in our community,” Councilwoman Allison Alter told her colleagues.

The city did not previously have a zoning category for electric vehicle charging, she said, but with the passage of this provision, “we can get the infrastructure we need to support the amount of electric vehicles” the city hopes to get. Alter noted that the charging stations may not be for the average person, but they will serve “rideshares, fleets, and other people who are really trying to convert their cars to electric vehicles to help preserve our environment.”

She said she appreciates the work being done by companies that want to come to Austin to set up such stations. For example, Mercedes-Benz recently announced a deal to locate electric vehicle 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 — representing 6.79 percent of the total road fleet — the city expects a significant increase in the adoption of such electric vehicles by 2030. A city spokesperson said their projections indicate growth by 300 percent in such vehicles, bringing the total to nearly 1,000 such vehicles by the end of the decade.

Under the Electric Vehicle Charging Ordinance, commercial charging stations — which charge electric vehicles much faster than those installed in single-family homes — will be permitted in the following zoning categories: general commercial services (CS), commercial alcohol sales (CS-1), Commercial Highway (CH), Industrial Park (IP), Main Industry (MI), Industrial Services Limited (LI) and Research and Development (R&D).

Under the amendment proposed by the Planning Commission, electric vehicle charging stations may be one level underground. The Fire Department will develop standards to allow charging at such locations.

“The proposed amendment helps implement the 2020 Climate Equity Plan’s goal of having 40 percent of all vehicle miles traveled in Austin be electrified, and for electric vehicle ownership to be nationally, geographically and culturally equitable,” according to a city staff summary of the new zoning category. economically diversified.”

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

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

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