Great Scott! St. Louis EV Charger Mandates Raise Questions for Landowners & Developers
In the classic movie?Back to the Future, Doc Brown feeds garbage into the DeLorean’s “Mr. Fusion,” an on-board fusion reactor capable of converting leftovers and food waste into clean, green, energy for that quintessential time travelling machine. Doc Brown later predicts that by 1985, plutonium will be available in every corner drugstore to refuel a world full of fusion-powered vehicles. Well Doc,?sorry to disappoint, but we’re not quite ready to slap a Cuisinart on the back of our cars and hit the town on a tank full of greasy banana peels.
What we might be ready for though–or at least what St. Louis City and County officials hope we are ready for–is a major step forward in green infrastructure in the form of?EV Ready Ordinances?(“EVOs”). As of January 2022, both St. Louis City and St. Louis County have?implemented ordinances?requiring certain new construction and major renovation projects to include Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure. Failure to comply could result in having your building permit denied or incurring daily fines until the infrastructure is installed.
While only time will tell how these issues play out, one thing is clear: electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity and will inevitably require a significant infrastructure upgrade to support charging. Whether EVOs are the right mechanism to implement that infrastructure, only Doc Brown knows.
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