Arlington Heights mayor pushes for EV charger restrictions in basement garages

Calling it a “nightmare waiting to happen,” new Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia is advocating for regulations that would ban installation of electric vehicle charging stations in basement parking garages of residential buildings in town.

Prompted by nationwide instances of long-burning lithium ion battery car fires sparked during the charging process, village officials are in the early stages of drafting a local ordinance that would limit the locations of EV chargers in new construction properties.

One of the example ordinances they’re looking at is from Rosemont, which placed a temporary moratorium on the installation of parking garage chargers in March. The local prohibition — prompted by a large electric vehicle fire on the first floor of the Fashion Outlets of Chicago garage in January 2024 — is believed to be the first approved by a municipality in Illinois.

“It’s one thing to put those in a parking garage that doesn’t have residents above it, and it’s open air, and it’s got plenty of cross ventilation for these nasty, very caustic types of smoke,” Tinaglia said at a village board committee meeting this week. “But to have them in a basement of a residential building with sleeping people up above? When we design these buildings as builders, architects and code enforcement, none of (us) were preparing for 2,000 degree fires.”

Tinaglia, an architect who has designed residential and commercial buildings in and out of town, said the consequences are “frightening.”

“I’m afraid for that fire to happen in any one of my buildings, and then have someone hurt, whether it’s a fireman trying to put it out, or a resident that lives there,” he added. “To me, it’s unthinkable that we would have these kinds of potential hazards going on in these buildings. … I think it’s a nightmare waiting to happen. It’s just gonna take one, and it’s gonna be really, really bad.”

Any local rules Arlington Heights crafts would have to thread the needle of safety and green infrastructure requirements in state law. The 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.

Ron Weber, the village’s director of the building and life safety department, clarified the law’s legalese: conduit has to be installed, but conductors themselves don’t have to be wired to the parking spaces.

He said there’s at least one building project currently in the permitting process in Arlington Heights — but not yet under construction — that will be subject to the new state law.

During a presentation to the village board last month, Fire Chief Lance Harris echoed Tinaglia’s concerns. He said an EV fire in a parking garage requires a special tow truck to lift and move the burning car out of the building. Then firefighters place a special weighted blanket on the car, and it takes hours for the blaze to be extinguished, Harris said.

Harris, Weber and Village Manager Randy Recklaus recently did a walk through of a parking garage as part of their investigation and planning process for EV charger regulations.

“We’re confident we can come up with some local solutions that mitigate the risk,” Recklaus said. “You can’t eliminate it — but mitigate it — while balancing the desire and need these days for a lot of folks that are interested in electric vehicles.”