Proposal would mandate charging stations at 300 San Francisco parking garages

In a bid to cut San Francisco’s greenhouse gas emissions, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin on Tuesday proposed expanding the number of electric charging stations at parking structures throughout the city.

The ordinance, introduced at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting, would help reduce emissions from the city’s transportation sector, which currently accounts for 46 percent of the city’s overall emissions.

Breed said in a statement:

“In order to meet our climate goals and improve the air we breathe, we need to electrify public and private transportation.”

Breed added that the move could encourage more residents to purchase electric vehicles:

“We know that one of the biggest barriers for people considering driving an electric vehicle is access to charging, so we want to make sure our city has the charging infrastructure that’s needed. Whether you’re parked at the grocery store to run errands or getting ready to leave the city for a road trip, you should be able to find a spot to charge — and get to your destination without having to use fossil fuels.”

Peskin said in a statement:

“We’re giving San Franciscans options and incentives to go green. Of course we’d like to see walking, biking and public transit prioritized, but if San Franciscans are going to drive, we hope they go electric.”

The legislation requires commercial parking lots and garages with more than 100 parking spaces to install electric vehicle charging stations for at least 10 percent of the parking spaces, meaning that up to 300 privately-owned parking facilities could have the charging stations. Owners of private parking facilities would have to install the charging stations by Jan. 1, 2023.

Additionally, electric vehicle charging stations could be installed in up to 38 city-owned parking facilities that are accessible to the public. That could result in up to 340 new charging stations in city-owned lots.

Currently, the city has more than 200 charging stations at its parking lots.

The ordinance to increase the city’s stock of charging stations is part of a larger goal to have 100 percent emission-free ground transportation throughout San Francisco by 2040, according to Breed’s office. That plan, called the Electric Vehicle Roadmap, offers solutions and actions the city can take to electrify the private sector transportation, decrease total vehicles miles traveled, reduce gasoline and diesel-powered cars on the road and increase the use of zero-emissions vehicles.