BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1236|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1236
Author: Chiu (D) and Low (D), et al.
AmendedAmended:8/18/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 6-1, 6/17/15
AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Hernandez, Lara, Pavley
NOES: Moorlach
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 8-0, 7/7/15
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Galgiani, Leyva, McGuire, Roth,
Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates, Gaines, Mendoza
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/26/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Local ordinances: electric vehicle charging stations
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires each city and county to adopt an
ordinance to streamline and expedite the permitting process for
electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
ANALYSIS:
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Existing law:
1) Authorizes the legislative body of any city or county to
adopt ordinances to regulate a variety of purposes, such as
the location, height, bulk, number of stories, and size of
buildings and structures.
2) Requires every city and county to adopt an ordinance, by
September 30, 2015, to streamline and expedite the permitting
process for small, residential, rooftop solar energy systems.
3) Directs relevant state agencies to develop benchmarks to
help support and facilitate the rapid commercialization of
Zero Emissions Vehicles (ZEVs). The order directed these
agencies to establish benchmarks to help the state's ZEV
infrastructure support 1.5 million ZEVs by 2025. The Office
of Planning and Research (OPR) has developed a "ZEV
guidebook" to help local jurisdictions plan for increasing
numbers of ZEVs. The guidebook offers a number of tools and
templates, including a checklist that guides both permit
applicants and building department staff through the process
of charging station installation.
4) Requires every city or county to adopt an ordinance that
creates an expedited permitting process for small,
residential rooftop solar energy systems. These ordinances
must be adopted by September 30, 2015.
5) Requires an owner of a commercial or residential property to
approve the installation of an EV charging station if it
meets specified requirements and complies with the owner's
process for approving a modification to the property, and
made a term in a lease of a commercial property executed,
renewed, or extended on or after January 1, 2015, void and
unenforceable if it prohibits or unreasonably restricts the
installation of an EV charging station in a parking space.
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This bill:
1) Requires each city, county, and city and county with a
population of 200,000 or more residents to develop an
ordinance for an expedited, streamlined permitting process
for EV charging stations by September 30, 2016.
2) Requires each city, county, and city and county with a
population of less than 200,000 residents to develop an
ordinance for an expedited, streamlined permitting process
for EV charging stations by September 30, 2017.
3) Requires the streamlined permitting process to include a
checklist of requirements for EV charging stations to be
eligible for expedited review. If a local agency has a
website, it must (a) post the checklist and any required
permitting documents online, (b) allow applicants to submit
the permit application electronically, and (c) allow
applicants to sign documents electronically unless it states
a reason why it is unable to do so.
4) Allows local governments to reasonably conform their
permitting process with recommendations for expedited
permitting in the most recent version of OPR's ZEV guidebook.
The process may vary to account for unique local conditions
including climate, geology, seismology, or topology.
5) Limits the local agency's review of the permit application
to whether the application meets all relevant health and
safety standards.
6) Requires approval through the issuance of a building permit
or similar nondiscretionary permit for any application that
meets the requirements of the checklist. If the application
doesn't meet the requirements, the local agency must provide
a list of deficiencies to the applicant.
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7) Allows a local agency to require a discretionary use permit
for a charging station if a building official at the agency
makes certain findings, including that the proposed
installation could have a specific, adverse impact on public
health or safety. However, the local agency cannot deny the
permit unless it makes findings that there is no way to
mitigate the health or safety impacts.
8) Requires the local agency to consult with local fire
agencies and, if applicable, the jurisdiction's utility
director.
9) Allows the local agency to establish a process to
prioritized competing applications for expedited permits.
10)Prohibits a local agency from requiring approval by a common
interest development (such as a homeowners association) as a
condition of a permit.
11)Allows the decision of the local agency's building official
to be appealed to the agency's planning commission.
12)Requires a city or county that owns and operates electric
utility services within its service territory to comply with
the electric utility interconnection policy.
Background
As an alternative to gasoline-based vehicles, California has
more EVs-and the charging stations necessary to fuel them-than
any other state in the nation. The state currently has over
137,000 EVs on the roads and nearly 12,000 charging stations to
support them, according to the Plug-in Electric Vehicle
Collaborative and the U.S. Department of Energy. This
represents 43 percent of the electric vehicles and about 22
percent of the charging stations in the country.
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Both EVs and charging stations have grown significantly in
recent years, due to a rapidly growing list of state policies
that support the adoption of EV technology and infrastructure,
beginning with incentives for purchasing EVs and requirements on
automakers to manufacture specified percentages of EVs in
relation to their production of conventional cars. To further
help communities across the state support their residents and
businesses in making the switch to ZEVs, OPR created several
resources to help achieve the goals in the Governor's Executive
Order, including the ZEV guidebook.
According to the ZEV guidebook, local jurisdictions follow
several types of permitting processes:
No Permit Necessary. A few jurisdictions have
characterized the installation of EV charging equipment as
a minor improvement and do not require a permit.
Permit Required, Online System. Some jurisdictions have
invested in online permitting and inspection portals, which
reduces the time and paperwork necessary to complete the
permit application. The jurisdiction defines what is
acceptable to be permitted through the online system.
Permit Required, Over-the-Counter (OTC) with
Scope-of-Work Only. This process is similar to the online
system except that the electrical contractor deals directly
with a city official noting the type of job being
completed. There is no detailed overview of the
installation and the permit is obtained immediately.
Permit Required, OTC with Plan Check. Plan check is
defined as a technical review of the installation and will
typically require additional documentation from the
electrician. In these cases, the permit will be obtained
only if the official agrees that the documentation shows an
acceptable installation, which can add time and cost to the
upfront permit application process.
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Permit Required, Plan Check. The same technical review
occurs, but not immediately. Instead, an official or
third-party contractor reviews the documents according to
the jurisdiction's process timeline. It is not uncommon
for the timeframe to be a few days to a few weeks.
Because the permitting process can vary from one local agency to
another, some businesses and organizations want to standardize
and streamline the process for permitting EV charging stations.
Comments
1)Purpose of the bill. The Legislature and the Governor have
made it a priority to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions in California. Achieving the state's target of 1.5
million ZEVs by 2025 is a critical step towards both of those
goals, and developing a system of convenient EV charging
stations is essential to promoting and accelerating the
adoption of ZEVs. Unfortunately, the number of EV charging
stations has not kept pace with the number of EVs purchased in
the state. Currently, the permitting process associated with
installing EV charging stations varies widely across local
agencies. Permitting requirements-and the time needed to
receive the permit-differ drastically across local
jurisdictions. This results in uncertainty and hinders the
ability of prospective EV buyers to understand the
administrative burden and the cost of installing EV charging
stations before purchasing an EV. AB 1236 equalizes the
process for permitting across jurisdictions and simplifies the
process of installing charging stations. At the same time, AB
1236 also provides local jurisdictions with flexibility in how
they permit EV charging stations. AB 1236 will help lower the
cost of installation, expedite permitting, and further expand
the infrastructure needed to meet these statewide goals.
2)Home rule. As demand for EVs and charging stations grows over
time, cities and counties will adopt best practices for EV
permitting based on the needs and experiences of their
communities. For local agencies that process very few permit
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requests, it may not make sense to require them to go through
the significant effort to develop a checklist and ordinance
when demand for charging stations is low.
3)Too Soon? AB 1236 was modeled very closely upon AB 2188
(Muratsuchi, Chapter 521, Statutes of 2014), which required
ordinances for residential rooftop solar installations to be
developed by September 30, 2015. Many cities and counties
have not yet completed or begun to implement these ordinances.
It may make sense to delay action on this legislation until
after AB 2188 has been in place for some time, so as to
identify any problems with this structure.
4)Let's be clear. This bill requires a city or county that
operates its own electric service to comply with the electric
utility's interconnection policy. However, this piece of this
bill is not restricted to permitting for EV charging
stations-instead it potentially covers all actions that a city
or county might take. It may make sense to clarify that the
expedited permitting process must ensure that EV charging
stations comply with the interconnection policy of the
electric utility that would serve the charging station.
Prior Legislation
AB 2188 (Muratsuchi, Chapter 521, Statutes of 2014) requires
every city and county to adopt an ordinance by September 30,
2015, to streamline and expedite the permitting process for
small, residential, rooftop solar energy systems.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified8/19/15)
American Institute of Architects
American Lung Association in California
California Apartment Association
California League of Conservation Voters
Chargepoint, Inc.
Coalition for Clean Air
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Natural Resources Defense Council
NRG Energy, Inc.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Plug In America
SacEV
Sierra Club California
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Stem, Inc.
TechNet
Volta
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/19/15)
California Municipal Utilities Association
California State Association of Counties
City of Burbank
City of San Marcos
League of California Cities
Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers
Urban Counties Caucus
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/26/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bloom, Chávez, Harper, Mathis
Prepared by:Anton Favorini-Csorba / GOV. & F. / (916) 651-4119
8/19/15 20:34:34
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