New Castle County, Delaware Considers EV-Capable Ordinance

For All New Residential Construction

Last night the New Castle County Council in Delaware introduced an EV Capable ordinance to ensure that new housing units have the capability to easily and more cost-effectively install electric vehicle service equipment in the future. Ordinance 21-116, sponsored by Councilperson Dee Durham, would require conduit and sufficient physical space in the electrical panel to accommodate a branch circuit for EV charging in new residential construction.

The ordinance cites Howard and Montgomery Counties in Maryland as locations that already require new residential construction to be EV-Ready.

WHEREAS, several jurisdictions, such as Howard and Montgomery Counties in Maryland, the City of Atlanta, and the entire State of California currently require that all new construction either provide for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations and/or that all new construction be “EV-ready”

Howard County Council passed an ordinance in 2018 to require EV charging infrastructure at new residential construction. That legislation was one of the first of its kind and has become a model for the nation. Howard County’s EV-Ready code is cited as an example in the Great Plains Institute’s “Summary of Best Practices in Electric Vehicle Ordinances”.

Councilperson Durham said that she and her staff talked to people all around the country in preparation for this bill. She originally wanted the ordinance to require “EV-Ready” which would include full wiring and circuit breakers but learned that the County didn’t have the regulatory authority over the electrical code. Those changes will have to be made at the state level since the state oversees the electric code.

At a Land Use Committee Meeting on Sep 21, 2021, Ms. Durham said that Senator Sarah McBride plans to introduce state legislation to require “EV-Ready” next session.

The proposed ordinance states, “residents of New Castle County will increasingly demand that our housing stock be outfitted with the equipment necessary to re-charge electric vehicles” and “retrofitting existing homes to install electric vehicle charging stations is both time consuming and expensive, unless the home was initially designed and constructed to facilitate the easy installation of such charging stations.”

Public Hearing

Proposed ordinance 21-116 will be discussed at a Land Use Committee meeting, currently scheduled for Oct. 19, 2021. Members of the public may be provided an opportunity to make comments.

For more about EV-Ready ordinances and laws, see the PlugInSites Legislation Reference – New Construction EV-Ready Requirements.