Mesa debating electric vehicle code measure

Sep. 20—Mesa is laying the groundwork to require developers to put in the infrastructure needed to charge electric vehicles at single-family homes, multifamily dwellings and, eventually, commercial buildings.

The EV building code could come to council for action in October, according to staff.

"The financial burden that puts on the initial construction (of a single-family home) is really pretty modest," Mayor John Giles said at the Sept. 5 study session. "You're talking about an outlet and some additional wiring. I've heard it estimated at $100 perhaps, give or take."

The proposal calls for single-family homes to have the infrastructure needed for the owner to add an outlet for a Level 2 charger, which can fully charge an electric vehicle overnight.

For multifamily developments, staff recommended that 5% of the required parking have the infrastructure and charging station and 10% of the required parking to be EV-capable. Staff was still researching a future code amendment for commercial builds.

Scottsdale and Flagstaff have EV building codes in place for single-family and multifamily residential and Avondale and Tucson have them for multifamily, according to staff.

Single-family developers that tend to build in Mesa already make it an option for EV-ready, where a 240-volt outlet is ready for use, said John Sheffer, deputy director- building official.

"They'll put in the outlet as an option in certain neighborhoods," he said. "In other neighborhoods, it's become standard."

"Blandford, Taylor Morrison and Toll Brothers have indicated that certain neighborhoods they already have it across the board. Lennar has already jump to making it EV-ready across the board for all of their homes."

In cities where there are no such requirements and the demand is market-driven, multifamily developers typically allocate 5 to 10% of parking for EV stations and another 5-10% that are EV-capable, Sheffer added.

Giles said that the requirement for multifamily parking spaces seemed low, stating electric vehicles could eventually become a dominate mode of transportation.

"Is it good city planning to say we're only going to require 15% of multifamily parking spaces to have EV chargers when we know a few years from now there's going to be more than 15% of the vehicles in that parking lot are going to be competing for those few chargers?" he asked.

Sheffer said that developers have indicated that when the requirement goes above 20 to 25%, it would require extra equipment just for chargers, causing a "massive increase in cost."

The proposal before the council strikes a balance with the costs and what's installed today, he said.

Giles pushed to raise the requirement to at least 20%, which he said won't require additional investment.

"The adoption of these vehicles is happening," Giles said. "Some manufacturers like Volkswagen are saying, 'we're going to exclusively produce EVs in the short term.

Nana Appiah, Development Services director, said that according to the development community, demand and trends have not really kept up with the expectations.

He added that the required percentage for EV-capable could be raised so that in the future if there is a need to do retrofitting, it would reduce the cost.

"We will look into increasing the number and then go back and have a very good discussion with (the developers)," he said.

Appiah said developers didn't see a need for an EV mandate as they have been providing this based on demand.

Giles remained steadfast for bumping up the requirement to 20-25%.

"I think whatever number we set in during this process in the next few years, council's going to come back and increase it because that's just the trend that is going," he said. "Five or 10 years from now council is going to look back and say, 'those backward-thinking people in 2024 only mandated this amount but the inventory of vehicles is 60-70%' and we have a crisis that we need to address."

He pointed to Scottsdale, which is already requiring multifamily developments to set aside 20% of required parking for EV-capable.

"I think we ought to push the envelope and be at 20% or 25% if we know that that's a number that's not going to require a significant investment in infrastructure for the development community," Giles argued.

Councilman Scott Somers asked if the market is driving this, why did the city need a mandate.

Appiah responded that the EV building code would provide a standard for Mesa.

He said that sometimes developers would be far along in a project and then realize that people are looking to rent apartments that have EV chargers and they end up having to adjust the parking, which becomes a problem.

"I think setting a baseline is an important aspect," Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia said, adding that way, "everybody has an equitable share to have a station at their multifamily.

Somers wanted to see numbers on how this mandate would affect rents, if at all.

"It might only be $100 for a single-family unit to put in the pipe," he said. "It's nothing as far as a mortgage is concerned. But when you start putting more infrastructure in for multifamily, we're going to start pushing up rental rates. I'd have some concern about that.

"I'd like to see that this isn't going to impact rents for people that don't have an electric vehicle."

City Manager Chris Brady said that the information would be "really hard to figure out."

"On the multifamily if we stay below that 20% that the mayor's looking for, we're not going to require them to add in another electric service coming in that equipment," Brady said.

"If we stay underneath what they're already bringing that infrastructure in at the 20%, then I don't think they can claim that we're adding additional significant cost — especially if they are doing it on the front end."

Appiah said multifamily developers "basically told us this is not something that is going to, or has been, adding additional cost because they've been doing it already. If it was, we would have heard clearly and loudly from them."

Giles said that he doubted it's a cost that's going to be passed on to low-income renters.

"This is a revenue source for these multifamily complexes," he said. "They're not going to be giving away electricity for free in these parking lots. They're going to sign a lucrative contract with a contractor who's going to come in and love to charge people for charging their cars.

Giles urged fast-tracking the proposal.

"Every time we have a zoning case with a multifamily project and I ask the question, 'how many electric chargers are there in this parking lot?' and I get a blank stare back," Giles said. "I cringe at approving those apartment complexes. It's because they're obsolete from the time that we build them and we're creating this problem that's going to have to be retrofitted at a much more costly approach going forward."

Councilwoman Jenn Duff said that the mandate would help address pollution in Maricopa County, one of 30 counties in the country with a failing grade in air quality.

"Many multifamilies are not capable of charging therefore renters are very hesitant to have an electric vehicle if they live in a place that doesn't have EV charging," Duff said. "I just want to encourage us to be ready for the future and not preparing our city for the past and to think about our commitment in our Climate Action Plan to improve our air quality.

"We need to be an EV-ready city."