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Green River planners debate ordinance to require amenities and safety checks for EV chargers; Chair proposes pairing gas stations
Summary
Commissioners discussed drafting an ordinance to regulate electric-vehicle charging stations, including conditional-use requirements such as restrooms and safety standards, and debated whether to include gas stations in the same ordinance.
The Green River City Planning Commission on Feb. 17 discussed drafting an ordinance to regulate electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations and whether to include gas stations in the same rule, with staff urging conditions to limit nuisances and an agency official flagging fire-suppression concerns for lithium-ion battery incidents.
The staff member described a recent Iona charging-station plan approved for a building permit that includes restrooms, vending and a lounge, and said that because some chargers appear as bare posts in parking lots they can create nuisance issues for adjacent businesses. "If I were to add this... I would say set it up as a conditional use and... make sure they have restrooms," the staff member said, arguing conditional use criteria could list amenities and performance standards.
The Chair proposed preparing an ordinance that would cover both EV stations and gas stations and asked staff to place the ordinance on next month's agenda. "So then for next month's agenda, we should start the process of doing an ordinance for EV charging stations and gas stations," the Chair said.
An agency official cautioned commissioners about fire risks tied to lithium-ion batteries, explaining that thermal-runaway events can be difficult to extinguish and that current suppression approaches are limited: "Once they're caught, we're just gonna burn," the official said, adding that some incidents require evacuation and that suppression guidance for on-site battery storage differs from a standalone charger.
A commissioner who previously worked on Tesla supercharger installations offered to request existing municipal ordinances and technical details from contacts at Tesla as a starting point for draft language. No ordinance was adopted at the meeting; staff were instructed to research suppression measures, collect model ordinance language from other cities and return with a draft for further discussion.
