New Castle County Council passed a watered-down version of a measure to make new residential construction support electric vehicle charging Tuesday.
The original ordinance County Councilwoman Dee Durham introduced this summer would have required new homes include the electrical infrastructure to support level-2 electric vehicle charging, which is faster than plugging a vehicle into a normal household outlet. The ordinance would have required half the parking spaces at new multi-unit buildings be EV-ready, and 5% have chargers already installed.
But it saw pushback from council members who worried about costs and county authority.
After several iterations, the version that passed Council Tuesday requires new residential construction have the basic electrical infrastructure to support EV charging, but drops many of the specifications in the version introduced this summer. It also drops the requirement for parking at multi-unit residential buildings from 50% EV-ready to 10% EV-capable, with a minimum of two EV-capable spots, one of which must be ADA-compliant. It also eliminates the requirement that some spaces have chargers already installed.
The measure that passed Tuesday goes into effect in July, six months after the original version would have.
Even with these changes, Peggy Schultz, a Newark resident who frequently advocates for climate action, supported the new measure during Tuesday’s meeting.
“We need to use every possible means at our disposal to curb climate change and get our air back to a breathable standard, and this ordinance will help,” she said.
Transportation has historically contributed nearly a third of Delaware’s total carbon emissions.
President Joe Biden set a goal for half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 to be electric, which auto industry leaders support.
The County’s General Manager of Land Use Rich Hall says the new version is more reasonable, given the small percentage of cars on the road that are currently electric.
“We’ve all talked about this quite a number of times across multiple versions over a long period of time,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I think we’re now at a place where we’re supportive and looking forward to moving forward. ”