Arlington planning commission backs zoning changes to ease siting and parking for EV chargers

The Arlington County Planning Commission on June 1 recommended that the County Board adopt amendments to the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance intended to reduce barriers to installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Department of Environmental Services staff presented the package, explaining it aims to align zoning with county climate and mobility goals in the Community Energy Plan and the Carbon Neutral Transportation Master Plan and to make charger deployment simpler for multifamily and constrained sites. "The current interpretation of the zoning ordinance is that spaces that are reserved for EV charging only do not count toward required parking," staff member Emily Nbar told commissioners, noting the county faces an access disparity: about 73% of housing units are multifamily while roughly 81% of registered electric vehicles are associated with single-family homes.

Staff proposed multiple changes: explicitly count parking spaces reserved for EV charging toward minimum parking calculations; treat chargers as allowable equipment rather than structures that must sit outside required setbacks (with a single exception of an 8-foot setback for Level 3 fast chargers on street fronts for safety); allow a new "EV accommodation" parking-space type to help site chargers in bounded garages; and give a parking credit so standard-size spaces served by Level 2 or Level 3 chargers can count as 1.5 spaces in the tabulation. Staff also proposed a streamlined review so only parking spaces affected by charger installation must be reviewed for compliance, rather than the entire lot.

Nbar said the proposal is intended to ease practical constraints — for example, the ordinance currently treats chargers as structures not allowed in required setbacks, which blocks placement where cars actually park. She noted technical mitigation strategies for electrical-distribution constraints, including power-sharing and lower charging speeds, and said staff will provide education to developers about options when utility capacity is constrained.

Commissioners pressed staff on implementation. Commissioner Peterson asked whether the 1.5-space parking credit would affect site-plan requests for lower parking ratios; staff replied that the EV parking credit should be factored into future parking-ratio calculations. Commissioner Garcia emphasized equity benefits of greater charger access in multifamily areas.

Commissioner Shriner moved that the commission recommend the County Board amend, reenact, and recodify multiple articles of the zoning ordinance to allow EVSE to encroach into required setbacks, establish parking standards for EVSE, create and define an EV accommodation parking space, and revise the parking-space definition so dedicated EV charging spaces count toward the minimum. Commissioner Robertson seconded. The motion passed in roll-call vote with nine votes in favor.

The planning commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the County Board for consideration at its June meeting. Staff said the changes are intended to give property owners and developers clearer, more flexible tools to site chargers and support county goals to reduce transportation-related greenhouse-gas emissions.