Hearing set for county electric car rules

New rules regarding electric car charging stations will be the topic of a public hearing before Whitman County commissioners Oct. 17.

Planner Alan Thomson submitted proposed zoning amendments to commissioners Monday that outline how electric car charging stations would be allowed to be set up in Whitman County.

Thomson said the changes were mandated by a 2009 law passed by the legislature which requires counties and towns zone to accommodate the infrastructure required to allow the expected proliferation of electric vehicles.

“The whole objective is if someone has an idea to do this, you’re not going to stop it,” said Thomson. “If you don’t have the infrastructure, you don’t have the use.”

He said the rules have to be in place, though he does not foresee a flood of charging stations in rural Whitman County.

“We probably aren’t going to see any in the county,” he said. “It’s more likely they’re going to set up in towns - especially Pullman.”

The ordinance proposal was approved earlier this month by the county planning commission.

Towns, too, must set up rules to allow for charging stations, though Thomson said few actually have.

Pullman is allowing stations by not putting them on a list of prohibited activities. Whitman County, however, lists permitted activities and anything outside of that list is prohibited.

The new code sets out three levels of charging stations for unincorporated areas of the county.

The first allows businesses or residents who want to set up personal charging stations to do so without applying for a permit from the county.

Level two allows for development of parking meter-style chargers which would be set up by either businesses or municipalities next to parking spaces on city streets or in parking lots.

Regulations in the level two permit require adequate signage and mandate such spaces be reserved for electric vehicles.

The third level lays out the permit requirements for larger charging stations that would be run similar to service stations and contain either rapid recharge units or battery exchanges.

Thomson said those stations would require either an administrative use permit or a conditional use permit from the county because of the potential impacts to neighbors.

“You could have a lot of traffic coming in which would have an impact to adjacent landowners,” said Thomson. “That would have to be addressed.”

The hearing will be in commissioners main meeting chambers at 11 a.m. Oct. 17.