Title
Resolution to Authorize a Commercial and Multifamily Residential Electric Vehicle Charger Program to Support the City’s Goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2030 and Increase Public Electric Vehicle Charging Availability
Memorandum
Strategy 2 of the City’s A2ZERO Plan calls for supporting beneficial electrification, including the electrification of vehicles within the City. In support of this goal, the City’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations (“OSI”) launched a working group with multi-family and commercial property owners to understand what barriers they face regarding the installation of electric vehicle (“EV”) chargers at their facilities. The results showed that the upfront costs of installing EV chargers and a lack of knowledge regarding EV charger installation were major barriers to deployment.
In light of these findings, OSI began working with commercial and multi-family property owners to design an EV charger support program. The goal of the program was to assist commercial and multi-family sites with installing publicly accessible EV chargers. Through a collaborative co-design process, OSI is now recommending the formal creation of a Commercial and Multifamily Residential Electric Vehicle Charger Program (“Program”) to award grants to eligible and selected commercial and multifamily property owners. A grant awarded under this Program will include up to four level 2 EV chargers (which must be installed at sites in Ann Arbor), a 5-year software package, a 5-year warranty, and necessary EV charger accessories.
The following entities are eligible for a grant under the Program:
• Commercial property owners; and
• Multifamily residential property owners with at least 5 units on site.
Candidates must have the electrical capacity required to support EV chargers at the proposed site to be eligible, and City staff will verify this prior to formal grant award. Interested candidates must submit an application online via the City’s application portal. Grant recipients are selected based on the geographical distribution of EV chargers, alignment with the City’s EV charging plan, site readiness, and expected EV charger demand. Applicants with spaces in high priority locations, such as those in income qualified areas, with multifamily unit access, and with minimal local EV charger access, will receive priority.
The highest priority eligible applicants will be selected as grant recipients by OSI on a rolling basis until funds are expended. Initially OSI has budgeted $100,000 annually, for three years, for the program.
Once selected, grant recipients must agree to the grant terms and conditions, which include limiting the cost of charging to no more than the cost of electricity plus the software provider’s transaction fee, allowing full public accessibility to the EV chargers, and maintaining a 90% uptime of the chargers. The grant agreement that award recipients must sign in order to receive EV chargers under this Program is provided as an attachment to this resolution.
The Program will launch in 2025 as a pilot. OSI seeks authorization to continue the Program, as long as funding and demand remain, should the pilot prove successful.
Budget/Fiscal Impact: Funding for the Commercial and Multifamily Residential Electric Vehicle Charger Program currently exists within the Office of Sustainability and Innovations FY25 budget.
Staff
Prepared by: Missy Stults, Sustainability and Innovations Director
Reviewed by: Valerie Jackson, Assistant City Attorney
Reviewed by: Kimberly Buselmeier, Interim Chief Financial Officer
Approved by: Milton Dohoney, Jr., City Administrator
Body
Whereas, The City of Ann Arbor set the goal of a just transition to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 through its A2ZERO Plan;
Whereas, Strategy two of the A2ZERO Plan includes converting vehicles to electric;
Whereas, Increasing the availability of public electric vehicle (“EV”) charging infrastructure advances the City’s carbon neutrality goals, including helping address range anxiety, along with access to home and business EV charging, so that individuals feel more comfortable making the transition to electric vehicles;
Whereas, To increase the availability of public EV charging infrastructure, the City has created a Commercial and Multifamily Residential Electric Vehicle Charger Program (“Program”) through which it intends to grant EV chargers to qualified commercial and/or multifamily property owners who agree to comply with Program requirements, such as making the EV chargers publicly accessible, limiting the cost of charging, minimum charger uptimes, and more as outlined in the City’s Grant Agreement for the EV Chargers at Commercial and Multifamily Residential Sites Grant Program; and
Whereas, Funding for this program has been budgeted in the City’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations budget for fiscal years 2025 through 2027;
RESOLVED, That City Council authorize the creation of a Commercial and Multifamily Residential Electric Vehicle Charger Program;
RESOLVED, That City Council authorize the Sustainability and Innovations Director, or their designee, under the guidance of the City Administrator, to administer the Commercial and Multifamily Residential Electric Vehicle Charger Program, including the application review process and the award of grants to eligible entities that install public EV charging through this program; and
RESOLVED, That the City Administrator and City Attorney be authorized to execute grant agreements under the Commercial and Multifamily Residential Electric Vehicle Charger Program.