Friday December 18, 2020 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Cert PR, editor | Island Social Trends
Pending approval by Council, the City of Langford will be requiring all new residential property developments to be wired for electric vehicle charging.
A motion was passed to this effect at the December 14 meeting of the city’s Planning, Zoning & Affordable Housing Committee. It will apply to new multi-family and residential developments.
“We’re trying to keep up with a lot of other municipalities in the province,” said Matthew Baldwin, Director of City Planning. That makes developments ready for electric vehicles.
“I think we need to have this,” said committee member Cheryl Brown.
Baldwin said that some strata councils have been blocking the installation of the necessary wiring and/or charging devices by strata owners in their parking spaces.
The motion would require ‘level two’ charging at the parking space, Baldwin explained to the committee during the meeting that was available to the public by teleconference. Individual residents (strata owners or tenants) would be responsible for installing and/or paying for the electrical charging equipment that is plugged in at the available outlets.
As for commercial developments, Baldwin recommended that they would just naturally fall in line with providing electric charging station infrastructure in new developments, as perks for employees or appealing to the customers of offices or retail businesses.
The Planning, Zoning & Affordable Housing Committee is chaired by Councillor Denise Blackwell, co-chair is Councillor Roger Wade.
The motion will be referred to the WestShore Developers Association for their review and comment, said Councillor Wade. The WestShore Developers Association has a strong and frequent interface with the city around matters of development.
The next City of Langford Council Meeting was recently rescheduled to Monday January 11, 2021.
