Why one suburb is banning EV chargers from public parking garages

Prompted by an electric vehicle fire that required a large response by firefighters, Rosemont officials Monday placed a temporary moratorium on the installation of charging stations in parking garages.

The ordinance approved by the village board only applies to proposed EV chargers inside parking garages and not those in outdoor surface lots. The ban doesn’t apply to residential garages; in fact, the state’s Electric Vehicle Charging Act that took effect last year requires the installation of EV-capable parking spaces in any new construction of single-family homes and multifamily residential buildings.

The local prohibition, perhaps the first approved by a municipality in Illinois, is tied to the vehicle fire that took place Jan. 18, 2024, on the first floor of the Fashion Outlets of Chicago parking garage. It took the placement of a special weighted blanket — and nearly five hours — for the blaze to be fully extinguished by firefighters and a hazardous materials response team, and resulted in closure of a portion of the garage.

But Mayor Brad Stephens said he and officials in the village’s public safety and building and zoning departments are aware of other prominent cases and viral videos of long-burning lithium ion battery fires.

“They’ve been a complete mess to deal with,” Stephens said before the board vote Monday morning.

Rosemont officials were not aware of similar bans in the area, but their action is on the heels of a State Farm decision last fall to remove charging stations from parking decks at corporate headquarters in downstate Bloomington. The insurance company cited a risk assessment and evaluations by local fire departments that identified fire risks in garages “that cannot be mitigated at this time,” WGLT radio reported.

In February 2024, officials in Milford, Connecticut, passed a prohibition on new EV charging stations within underground parking garages.

Though the fire in the Rosemont shopping center garage was more than a year ago, other businesses have since asked the building department for permission to install chargers inside their garages. Department director Ron Holtman told them no, citing the ordinance that was in the works and finally approved Monday.

There are currently no electric vehicle chargers inside the village-owned, 8,500-space Williams Street garage that serves the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center and Parkway Bank Park entertainment district, but there are a few in a surface lot in the latter area.

The 2,800-space Fashion Outlets garage has eight charging stations on the first floor — where the fire occurred last year — and 10 charging stations on the sixth floor.