By Mary Hladky
As concerns about carbon emissions mount and electric vehicles gain in popularity, the Boca Raton City Council has unanimously approved an amended ordinance that increases the number of parking spaces in the city that must be equipped to charge them.
Boca Raton will now require the EV spaces throughout the city, except in single-family neighborhoods. That includes all city-owned buildings.
The city already controls how many regular parking spaces developers must provide, depending on the size of the project. But now, the number of required EV spaces able to charge cars will increase to 5% of the total, up from 2%.
The revised ordinance says that 35% of the parking spaces in new developments must be either capable of charging cars or able to be converted to do so. Of that total, 5% must be capable of charging a car.
City officials noted that it is far more expensive to convert a regular space to one equipped to charge a car than it is to provide at the outset infrastructure that is easily convertible.
Council members had a host of questions when the revised ordinance was first considered in March. City staff offered clarifications at the April 25 meeting, but that didn’t answer all their questions.
Council members considered delaying action, but Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte, a strong environmentalist, pleaded for the council to act. The revised ordinance, she said, could be further clarified or amended as needed.
“We need to get this done,” she said. “This is not something we can ignore.”
In a memo, City Manager Leif Ahnell said that projections show that by 2030, up to 30% of passenger vehicles will be electric. Major manufacturers have promised large increases in production, with General Motors committing to a 100% electric vehicle fleet by 2035.
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