Equitable Electric Vehicle Parking
EV Ready Parking Ordinance - Passed at Council
The EV Ready Parking Ordinance was approved at Columbus City Council on July 25, 2022. This update to the city’s zoning code to require new parking lot constructions to include EV charging for use by tenants, residents and visitors will go into effect January 1, 2024. View the final version of the ordinance.
An implementation guide and additional resources are in development. Those materials will be added to this webpage as they are finalized ahead of the 2024 implementation of the ordinance.
Draft EV Ready Parking Ordinance - Public Comment Period
The City of Columbus held a 30-day Public Comment Period to collect feedback on a draft Electric Vehicle (EV) Ready Parking Ordinance from April 25, 2022 to May 25, 2022. View a summary of the feedback submitted and City responses(PDF, 148KB).
Updates as of May 26, 2022
- Columbus City Council is hosting a Public Hearing on June 8, 2022 at 4pm (City Hall and WebEx). We encourage stakeholders to submit comments on the draft EV Ready Parking Ordinance to City Council. In addition to the comments submitted during the Public Comment Period, this feedback will help inform a final version of the EV Ready Parking Ordinance. Additional detail on the Public Hearing can be found in this Public Hearing Notice(PDF, 12KB).
- Stakeholder feedback submitted during the Public Comment Period helped inform an updated draft EV Ready Parking Ordinance(PDF, 604KB) as of 5/27.
- View the document outlining the changes made to the draft EV Parking Ordinance(PDF, 92KB) as a result of the Public Comment Period feedback.
Updates as of April 25, 2022
The City of Columbus is holding a 30-day Public Comment Period to collect feedback on a draft EV Ready (EV) Parking Ordinance from April 25, 2022 to May 25, 2022. The City has conducted over ten months of stakeholder engagement, beginning with one-on-one meetings with developers, the affordable housing sector, and community groups in 2021. In January 2022, we launched a dedicated three-month meeting series (EV Ready Roundtables) convening a diverse set of organizational voices to co-create an Equitable EV Ready Parking Ordinance, including developers, affordable housing sector, community-based organizations, utility companies, environmental advocates, industry professionals, and others. Additional information on the Roundtable meetings can be found below.
EV Ready Parking Ordinances ensure that newly created parking lots and garages have EV charging stations installed and/or have the ability to be easily and affordably installed in the future. Columbus’ draft Equitable EV Ready Parking Ordinance is a reflection of the input provided by the EV Ready Roundtable participants and current and projected EV adoption and charging infrastructure data.
All feedback on the EV Ready Parking Ordinance must be submitted through the public comment forum and will be made public to support an equitable and transparent process.
In addition to this Equitable EV Ready Parking Ordinance Feedback Form, Columbus is continuing engagement with residents and community-groups to better understand community needs in the transition to an electric vehicle future. Provide feedback via the EV Ready Parking Community Impacts Survey.
We're hosting two 30-minute informational webinars and two 60-minute office hours sessions during the public comment period.
The informational webinars will provide an overview of the EV Ready Parking Ordinance and proposed Zoning Code amendment. We will collect questions via the Q&A/Chat function but will not take questions live. The session will be recorded and posted to this website. We encourage organizations to join one of these sessions to learn about the proposed EV Ready Parking Ordinance and then bring their questions to the office hours held the following week. Office hours will be an open Q&A meeting to seek clarification on the proposed EV Ready Parking Ordinance and Zoning Code amendment. Official comments must be submitted via the feedback channels listed above. The office hours sessions will not be recorded.
What We’re Doing
The City of Columbus is exploring the adoption of a standardized, equitable electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure strategy that would significantly increase the number of, and access to, EV charging stations community-wide.
Sustainable Columbus, in partnership with Smart Columbus and local partners CommEN Strategies and IMPACT Community Action, is leading an equitable community and stakeholder engagement process to discuss opportunities and challenges associated with the installation of EV charging infrastructure. Stakeholders, residents, and community groups will have opportunities to provide direct input on co-creation of an Equitable EV Readiness Ordinance for Columbus City Council consideration. Additional details are outlined in the Equitable Community and Stakeholder Engagement section below.
Q: What is EV Ready Parking?
A: EV Ready Parking is a best practice that ensures newly constructed parking spaces can easily and affordably be converted to EV charging stations in the future. It requires that a certain percentage of newly constructed parking spaces include electrical infrastructure at the time of construction that enables future EV charging.
Why It’s Important
Adoption of an Equitable EV Readiness Ordinance is one of the most impactful actions a municipality can take, and the most cost-effective for developers, to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles and to enable increase access to lower-cost and lower-carbon transportation options.
Climate Justice: Standardized community-wide EV charging infrastructure will ensure equitable access to EV charging for all of our residents, especially and including those in multifamily housing and low-income communities who have the highest barrier to access EV charging and lower-cost and lower-carbon transportation options like electric vehicles.
Economic Incentive: Installation of EV charging infrastructure during construction or major renovation of a parking area saves 75% in costs compared to installing charging infrastructure as a retrofit (source). Standardized charging requirements will also provide certainty and consistency for developers.
Human and Environmental Health: EVs don't emit harmful tailpipe emissions and emit nearly half of the lifecycle emissions compared to gas-powered vehicles (source). Reducing vehicle emissions in our neighborhoods leads to fewer negative health impacts caused by air pollution.
Regional Competitiveness: Columbus is the fastest growing EV market in the Midwest and may be the first city in Ohio and any bordering state to pass an Equitable EV Readiness Ordinance. Businesses considering expanding operations into Columbus are looking for buildings that are efficient and parking that is future-ready for EVs at their office spaces and residences for their employees.
Equitable Engagement
We are committed to an equitable community, resident, and stakeholder engagement process to develop an Equitable EV Readiness Ordinance. With support from trusted local partners including CommEN Strategies and IMPACT Community Action, we’ll ensure that needs and priorities of diverse voices, underrepresented and non-traditional organizations, and members of our BIPOC neighborhoods are represented in the Equitable EV Readiness Ordinance and supportive programs.
Resident Engagement: To advance and center community priorities, we conducted resident engagement led by CommEN Strategies in the fall of 2021. Details on the findings from this resident engagement can be found in the Columbus EV Ready Resident Engagement Report(PDF, 580KB). As a precursor to this engagement, Columbus partnered with Illuminology in fall of 2020 to engage with low-to-moderate income residents in Columbus and understand their transportation patterns and interest in electric vehicles. Details on that resident engagement can be found in the Illuminology Resident Engagement Research Report(PDF, 17MB) .
Building on the Resident Engagement, We Encourage You And/or Your Organization to Become Involved
For organizations: including but not limited to: traditional developers, affordable housing developers, community-based organizations, social services organizations, utility companies, environmental advocates, neighborhood commissions, faith-based coalitions, and civic engagement groups. Representatives from these organizations are encouraged to join our Equitable EV Ready Parking Roundtable series from January to April 2022. This was a virtual meeting series, open to any interested organization, intended to co-create an Equitable EV Ready Parking Ordinance. Reference materials from these meetings can be found below.
- January 26, 2022 Roundtable Meeting #1 Presentation(PDF, 3MB)
- February 9, 2022 Roundtable Meeting #2 Presentation(PDF, 2MB)
- February 23, 2022 Roundtable Meeting #3 Presentation(PDF, 188KB)
- March 16, 2022 Roundtable Meeting #4 Presentation(PDF, 3MB)
- March 23, 2022 Roundtable Meeting #5 Presentation(PDF, 363KB)
- April 20, 2022 Roundtable Meeting #6 Presentation(PDF, 1021KB)
Want to Learn More?
Resources:
Please note that this website will be continually updated with resources and additional avenues for involvement.