Dear Mayor and Councilmembers, I appreciate that the City Council is trying to solve a serious problem in Menlo Park, and support the passage of the EV Charging Ordinance. What's the problem? We have too many gasoline vehicles in our city, polluting our air, causing asthma, heart and lung disease, cancers and dementia, and contributing to global warming - the effects of which are becoming more dire each year, with severe droughts and fires in California. Passenger vehicles are the single biggest cause of air pollution and carbon dioxide in California. The most efficient way to address the problem is by moving from gas cars to clean electric vehicles. According to data gathered by the International Council on Clean Transportation, the number of EVs in Menlo Park grew 8% in the last year alone, to 18%. See https://www.theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/CA-cityEV-Briefing - 20180507.pdf An EV adoption rate of 18% is great, but we can and must do better for the health of our residents and of our climate. Why aren't our city's EV adoption rates even higher? In part because many people live in apartments or multi-unit dwellings without access to EV charging. I hear people bemoan this fact all the time. There is demand for EV charging infrastructure. The full potential for Menlo Park residents to drive EVs can only be met by first satisfying this demand. The cheapest, easiest solution to this problem is to increase EV charging infrastructure requirements in new construction, which the ordinance does. The ordinance sends the right message that Menlo Park is serious about enabling and encouraging residents to transition to EVs. If EV charging technology changes, the City Council can modify the ordinance. But we have lots of new construction underway and planned, we have urgent problems of air pollution and climate change, and lots of folks who want to switch to clean cars. It's critical to put in place an ordinance now to address these needs and enable Menlo Park to continue to lead the way on ending the fossil fuel era. It would be much more expensive to go back in a few years, when our EV adoption rate is 25% or 50%, and have to break through concrete to add the charging infrastructure. Better to put the infrastructure in place now, when the buildings are being constructed. Even if EVs of the future have longer ranges, the used EVs of the future will still have relatively short ranges. People of all income levels should be able to enjoy the benefits not only of cheaper fuel (electricity) for their cars, but also the convenience of charging at home or at work while their vehicle is parked. We must increase EV charging infrastructure, especially in apartments and workplaces. For evidence that the EV charging ordinance will succeed, we need only look to the below letter from Palo Alto's Development Director, Dr Peter Pirnejad, about the benefits of a similar ordinance in Palo Alto. Please pass this ordinance as written, and enable Menlo Park to lead the way in the transition to clean vehicles for all. Sincerely, Janelle London Sharon Court Menlo Park From: Pirnejad, Peter [mailto:Peter.Pirnejad_at_(domainremoved) Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2018 11:09 AM To: dmchow_at_(domainremoved) Cc: Jacobson, Melanie; oripaz_at_(domainremoved) SvenThesen_at_(domainremoved) Subject: The Palo Alto experience in creating and enforcing an Electric Vehicle Ordinance Dear Ms. Chow, Mr. Lafrance, and Ms. Lucky, I was talking to a mutual acquaintance, Sven Thesen, also good friend, and he mentioned Menlo Park was considering an Electric Vehicle ordinance of some kind. As the Director of Development Services, I am pleased that the City of Menlo Park is advancing a new electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure ordinance for multi-family and commercial developments and would like to share my Department's experience to the extent that it may help you. As you may know, in 2014 the City of Palo Alto adopted EV charging requirements with essentially the following requirements: * Multi-family residential - one Level 2 charging outlet and/ or one EVSE for each housing unit, plus install electric wiring for 25% of visitor spaces. * Hotels - all new builds must accommodate EVs at 30% of public spaces. This accommodation can be either a 120V outlet or actual charging equipment, but all parking must have at least 1 in every 10 spaces set up to include installed EVSEs. * Commercial Development - 25% of all spaces must accommodate plug-in vehicles, with at least 5% of all spaces equipped with charging equipment. I estimate that this ordinance has increased construction costs by less than 0.5% and I know from experience that it is considerably more expensive (10-100 times more) to add charging infrastructure post construction than pre-construction. To date, my Department has had no pushback from developers regarding the ordinance's residential component and limited pushback on the commercial side, primarily due to new California Americans with Disabilities Act adding additional parking space requirements. If Menlo Park was only to enact one component of our ordinance (residential or commercial) I would prioritize the residential requirement of one charger per residential unit because a) this is where vehicles spend most of their time b) the great majority of EV users prefer to charge at home versus a commercial setting and c) both home charger install and operational costs are generally less than the commercial costs. Palo Alto and Menlo Park have some of the highest purchasing rates of EVs, yet multi-family dwellings that lack charging infrastructure remain a major barrier to accelerating EV adoption. I appreciate the efforts of Menlo Park and other cities throughout the region to support EVs as an effective way to cut greenhouse gas and air pollution. In summary, it is my opinion that Palo Alto's 2014 EV charging requirements have been a major success. Feel free to contact my office if there is anything I can do to support Menlo Park in adopting a similar measure. If you have technical questions about our ordinance the best person to talk to is Melanie Jacobson, copied in this email Sincerely, Dr. Peter Pirnejad Director of Development Services Peter Pirnejad | Director of Development Services 285 Hamilton Avenue | Palo Alto, CA 94301 https://maps.google.com/?q=285+Hamilton+Avenue+%7C+Palo+Alto,+CA+94301&entr y=gmail&source=g> O: 650.329.2349 | E: Peter.Pirnejad_at_(domainremoved) For scheduling please contact Tabatha Boatwright | Admin Associate 0: (650) 329-2226 | Tabatha.Boatwright_at_(domainremoved) (image/png attachment: image001.png )
