The Snyderville Basin Planning Commission is taking steps to further regulate and encourage electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle parking spots.
“There are many ways that Summit County supports electrified and alternative transportation,” said Sustainability Program Manager Emily Quinton. “Much of your work certainly interacts with that support. Whether we’re talking about the bike share, pedestrian pathways, installing EV charging — overall, we want to make it easy for community members to adopt these modes of transportation.”
Quinton, alongside representatives from the Summit Bike Share and the county’s Planning Department, presented a proposed code amendment to the Planning Commission on Tuesday. The amendment would “require developers to install electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle parking in new developments,” according to a staff report.
Requiring developers to implement EV-friendly infrastructure now would not only benefit current Summit County residents and visitors, it would also save the county money in the future, Quinton said.
“On the EV-readiness end of things, studies have shown that it can be four to six times more expensive to retrofit and add this infrastructure later,” she explained. “The cost implications aren’t quite as steep for bike parking, but obviously designing for that in mind is going to have benefits and efficiencies.”
The Summit County Council has emphasized sustainability, lowering emissions and improving water and air quality in recent years, which Quinton says aligns well with the proposed code changes.
“Part of the focus in this is on new multi-family building,” Quinton said. “Generally speaking, we know that folks in multi-family housing are going to have little ability to influence adding bike parking or EV charging, so making that available by requiring some minimum amount of infrastructure up front is an opportunity that Summit County can play … intervening in this process and ensuring that access.”
According to principal planner Ray Milliner, “basically all new development” in Summit County would be required to provide EV charging stations or EV-ready parking spots, but the specifics for each development would depend on whether it’s commercial or residential and its zoning.
“In the last quarter in Summit County, 11% of the vehicles that were registered were EVs,” Milliner said. “We’re seeing a lot of these cars coming online around the county.”
The requirements for bike parking are similar, Milliner said, and include both short-term and long-term parking depending on the development and zoning.
“We have an exception in there that, as part of a conditional use or review by you all, you guys can reduce or modify the outdoor parking storage if the applicant demonstrates they don’t need it, like, for example, if it’s an old folks’ home or something where they’re not really robust bike riders,” Milliner said.
The Planning Commission unanimously voted to forward a positive recommendation to the Summit County Council.