Schaumburg lowering requirements for electric-vehicle capability at new multifamily buildings

Schaumburg trustees are expected to use their home-rule authority Tuesday to adopt less stringent electric vehicle requirements for any new large-scale multifamily construction.

State law that took effect 18 months ago requires EV chargers for every parking space at larger multifamily developments, but Schaumburg is asking for only 20%.

“We want to be conscious of the environment, but there’s also the question of what’s reasonable,” Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly said. “The general feeling was that things aren’t going to move as fast (in the electric-vehicle market) as they have been.”

The proposed Schaumburg rules do require newly constructed single-family homes and smaller multifamily buildings of five units or less built to make those garages capable of providing EV chargers, which is in line with current state requirements.

Village officials favored not putting an undue burden on developers of larger multifamily projects when it comes to estimating the future popularity of electric vehicles.

The rules don’t require builders to install chargers in new garages, but rather provide infrastructure to enable them. Without that, Dailly’s heard cost estimates of up to $2,500 to retrofit an EV charger in an unprepared garage.

Back in February, Schaumburg’s Electrical Commission recommended a lower requirement for the EV capability of large multifamily buildings in the village — with 40% suggested as a starting point for discussion.

But after discussions across various committees and advisory panels, that figure dropped to 20%.

Among 14 other communities surveyed by Schaumburg, only Evanston had made local changes to the state requirements. But those exceeded the state’s.

For large multifamily developments, Evanston requires 10% of spaces to be “EV-Installed” with charging equipment, 20% “EV-Ready,” and 70% “EV-capable.” And the EV-installed and EV-Ready percentages are to increase by 10% every three years.

Bolingbrook reported pending projects affected by the state requirements and is considering making local amendments.

Other communities indicated they may consider changes in the future. Some reported having no new multifamily projects that would be affected.

That isn’t the case for Schaumburg, where construction of The District at Veridian mixed-used development on the former Motorola campus will include a recently approved nine-story, 321-unit apartment building with another 66 D.R. Horton rowhomes to follow their predecessors further west on the 225-acre Veridian site.

Schaumburg trustees also recently approved the village’s first residential conversion of a five-story office building on Woodfield Road, which would be affected by the new rules as well.