Committee approves ordinance to speed electric vehicle charging permits, sets checklist timeline

The Planning and Land Use Committee on Oct. 12, 2025, unanimously approved a city attorney report and draft ordinance to streamline permitting for electric vehicle charging systems and received an informational report from the Department of Building and Safety.

The city attorney told the committee the ordinance implements a 2015 state direction asking local governments to adopt an expedited permitting checklist for EV charging stations; applications meeting the checklist would be deemed approved under the timelines set in state law. The Department of Building and Safety reported that a checklist has been drafted and is expected to be posted online in approximately two to three months after final approval.

Why it matters: the ordinance sets short, mandatory review windows for qualifying applications, intended to reduce delays for EV infrastructure. Committee members pressed staff to explain how the state-mandated timelines interact with the city’s existing permitting rules and appeals process.

Key details and timeline: Charles Sewell of the City Attorney’s Office summarized the state approach: applications satisfying the checklist would be deemed approved within 5 or 10 business days depending on the size of the application, and would be “deemed complete” within 20 to 40 days if no corrections are required. The ordinance preserves an administrative appeal process, but the state law does not set a timeline for appeals; staff said the ordinance provides for administrative appeals and that Building and Safety would still be able to issue written findings where a project would cause a specific adverse impact.

Celeste Nguyen of the Department of Building and Safety said the checklist has been drafted and is expected to be posted to the department website within two to three months of final approval.

Committee members asked whether similar delegated timelines exist elsewhere in the building code; staff noted an existing expedited solar permitting checklist in the same code section and said local deadlines that are stricter than state law must be justified by local findings. The committee also asked how adverse-impact determinations would be handled; staff said Building and Safety can issue findings detailing impacts and mitigation and that applicants can appeal those findings administratively.

Action taken: the committee approved the city attorney report and draft ordinance, the environmental clearance and findings dated Dec. 4, 2024, and received and filed the Department of Building and Safety report dated Feb. 21, 2024. The roll call recorded five ayes.

Next steps: Building and Safety will post the checklist and implement the administrative process described in the ordinance; staff will continue to coordinate on the final ordinance language and implementation details.

Ending: The committee’s vote sends the draft ordinance forward for the next steps required by Council procedures and directs staff to publish the checklist and continue implementing the required timelines and appeal process.