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Home My WebLink AboutStaff Report 2508-5087CITY OF PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL Monday, November 17, 2025 Council Chambers & Hybrid 5:30 PM Agenda Item 3.Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Recommendation to Approve Program Design Guidelines for Successor to Multi-family Electric Vehicle Charger Program; CEQA Status - Not a Project City Council Staff Report From: City Manager Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR Lead Department: Public Works Meeting Date: November 17, 2025 Report #:2508-5087 TITLE Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Recommendation to Approve Program Design Guidelines for Successor to Multi-family Electric Vehicle Charger Program; CEQA Status - Not a Project RECOMMENDATION The Climate Action and Sustainability Committee and staff recommend that the City Council approve the Program Design Guidelines for Successor to Multi-family Electric Vehicle Charger Program to guide development of a revised multi-family electric vehicle (EV) charger program in the coming months. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The City has had success expanding EV access for multi-family buildings with its current multifamily EV program, but this program’s success has required substantial incentive money, meaning it is not financially scalable. The City must experiment with new program financial models to provide service more broadly and at a greater scale. Gathering input from several multi-family EV charger installers and operators, staff developed the attached program design guidelines (Attachment A). The guidelines focus on financial models aimed at scaling installations communitywide and implementation strategies aimed at serving different types of multi-family buildings with different levels of EV adoption utilizing a variety of EV charging technologies. They focus on deploying shared charging at low levels of adoption and individual chargers where demand supports them. They specify grid-friendly installations and inclusion of active and shared transportation facilities where appropriate. And they highlight the need for complementary programming to help drive adoption of e-mobility and use of active and shared transportation. Since 2017, the City has run an EV Charger Rebate Program providing incentives and technical assistance to help multi-family property owners and condominium associations install EV charging. This program has to date resulted in 325 shared EV chargers across 26 multifamily residential buildings representing a total of 1,324 units, or about 12.4% of the multi-family units in Palo Alto. However, to reach the community’s climate goals, multi-family residents will need significantly greater EV charger access. The EV Charger Needs Assessment study done in support of the E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap1 found that providing EV charger access at home is more cost-effective than providing public charging to serve that same need. 2 BACKGROUND 3 requires that 55% of residents adopt EVs, including 33% of multi-family residents. As of the end of 2024, EVs accounted for 19.3% of all vehicle registrations in Palo Alto; only 15.7% of all EVs in Palo Alto were registered to multifamily addresses, while 79.3% were registered to single family homes. EV charging access has been one of the major barriers to multi-family EV adoption as multifamily residents have little to no direct ability to install their own charging units and multifamily property owners/managers/HOAs often are dealing with competing priorities, may lack subject matter expertise, and face complex decision-making processes, challenging infrastructure installations, high out-of-pocket costs, and electric service capacity constraints when considering more comprehensive EV charging infrastructure projects. ANALYSIS 1 City Council, August 18, 2025, Staff and the Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Recommendation to Accept the E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap, Attachment B, https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/meetings/ItemWithTe 2 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee, September 19, 2025, Staff Report 2507-5023, Review and Discussio n of Design Guidelines for Successor to Current Multi-family Electric Vehicle Charger Program, https://cityofpaloalto .primegov.com/meetings/ItemWithTemplateType?id=9234&meetingTemplateType=2&compiledMeetingDocumen tId=16878 3 AECOM Palo Alto Action Impact Memo, June 7, 2021, page 10, https://www.paloalto.gov/files/assets/public/v/2/ sustainability/reports/aecom-palo-alto-action-impactmemo_final_rev-210607.pdf buildings and levels of EV adoption. These are discussed in more detail in the CASC report, but in summary: Financing: The current model for EV charger development, providing incentives to cover the majority of the cost, is not scalable to the entire community. These design guidelines envision a system of financing where the cost of repaying the original investment comes from charges to drivers and landlords while ensuring competitive charging rates. Technology and system design: Staff’s discussions with EV charging installers revealed a range of strategies for installing chargers, and these design guidelines envision a flexible program that can accommodate a wide range of strategies. Staff also received feedback on various aspects of the City’s permitting and interconnection requirements it will consider in designing the program. Risk Management: The program design guidelines envision a program that uses a range of different tools to deliver charging appropriate to the density of EV owners nearby, ranging from mobility hubs and on-street charging to shared on-site chargers to chargers in individual assigned spaces. Individual space installations would only be done when there are enough drivers in a building to make it worthwhile to install all the electrical upgrades needed for EV chargers in individual spaces. Complementary Programming and Grid Impacts: The design guidelines address grid impacts by incorporating load management systems and address risk by including outreach to EV drivers in the area to ensure chargers are used once installed. FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT CASC staff report but included extensive discussions on financing, permitting and interconnection, risk management, and outreach. 7 and unanimously recommended them for approval. Discussion and questions focused on public on-street charging, how financing for this program compares to other financing programs available in California, streamlining permitting and interconnection, funding sources, and transformer upgrade fees. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW ATTACHMENTS APPROVED BY: 7 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee, September 19, 2025, Staff Report 2507-5023, Review and Discussio n of Design Guidelines for Successor to Current Multi-family Electric Vehicle Charger Program, https://cityofpaloalto .primegov.com/meetings/ItemWithTemplateType?id=9234&meetingTemplateType=2&compiledMeetingDocumen tId=16878 Design Guidelines for Successor to Current Multi-Family Electric Vehicle Charger Program These design guidelines are meant to guide development of an electric vehicle (EV) charging program designed to meet current EV charging demands, anticipate market- and policy-driven charging trends, and inspire future electric charging demand specifically for the multi-family customer segment. Program goals and scope The program should: 1. Enable convenient, affordable, and accessible EV charging for multi-family residents 2. Pilot financial designs that can be deployed community-wide with little or no additional funding from the City 3. Enable participation by a wide range of EV infrastructure providers 4. Pilot options for participation by all feasible multi-family property sizes and ownership structures with varying levels of existing EV adoption Program financial design To ensure the program is cost-effective and scalable: 1. It should provide financing (rather than up-front incentives) such as charging as a service (CaaS) that aims to reduce the impact to a property owner’s balance sheet. 2. Subsidies should be temporary, and ideally should be repaid over time. Only designated affordable housing should receive subsidies not meant to be repaid. 3. The beneficiaries of the investment – e.g. drivers and landlords – should be responsible for the repayment financing and temporary subsidies, as: a. Drivers benefit by saving on fueling and car maintenance when buying an EV b. Landlords benefit from higher rents once EV charging becomes an amenity 4. Where a landlord or homeowner’s association (HOA) pays a share of up-front project costs, the program should enable that up-front investment to be repaid in a reasonable amount of time. 5. Charging rates resulting from the program should remain attractive to drivers. 6. Charging facilities should only be built if existing and anticipated future demand will support them. Program technical design To ensure the program is accessible to a wide range of infrastructure providers serving a range of needs in the multi-family space: 1. Develop program solutions compatible with EV chargers either 1) using separate meters and/or separate utility services, or 2) installed on existing house or unit meters. 2. Upgrades to electrical infrastructure should be designed to accommodate or be easily upgraded to accommodate future on-site vehicle and building electrification, using load management and shared infrastructure to minimize the need for service upgrades. 3. The program should install facilities appropriate to the site’s EV adoption levels while enabling future expansion by using strategies such as: a. Installing chargers in individual spaces at a multi-family property when EV adoption is high enough to support cost recovery of the investment b. Installing shared chargers at a multi-family property when EV adoption is not high enough to support installation of chargers in individual spaces c. Deploying nearby public charging infrastructure (e.g. neighborhood EV charging hubs or on-street charging) when EV adoption within nearby properties does not yet support an on-site installation or when an on-site installation is technically or financially infeasible Complementary Infrastructure The program should involve deployment of infrastructure for alternative transportation (e.g. shared and micro mobility) in conjunction with EV chargers. Examples include: 1. Exterior e-bike and e-scooter charging infrastructure 2. Secure facilities for bicycles, e-bikes, and other small vehicles (interior or exterior) 3. Shared e-car, e-bike / bike, e-scooter / scooter, or other shared micromobility options Complementary Programming The program should involve outreach, engagement, and other customer-facing efforts that support the transition to e-mobility. Examples include: 1. EV advisor service / project management support to assist with technical equipment specifications, navigating City processes, connecting with contractors/EV service providers, and identifying/leveraging stackable funding opportunities 2. Property Owner / Asset Manager / HOA education and outreach campaigns, including multi-family focused EV charging workshops 3. EV and e-bike community events/showcases and educational workshops 4. Efforts that facilitate e-mobility adoption amongst income-qualified customers 5. EV-aligned building/zoning code updates and permit streamlining Electric Grid Compatibility The program should install facilities that minimize impact on the electric grid. Potential strategies include: 1. Low-power EV charging 2. Peak load and/or dynamic load management 3. EV demand response (via load management or vehicle to grid)