Bill would impose fines on Hawaii parking lot owners for not having EV spaces
Pacific Business News - February 6, 2017
By: Duane Shimogawa
A new Hawaii bill would add penalties and increase the amount of electric vehicle parking spaces shopping malls and other places, would need to dedicate at their respective properties.
Senate Bill 817, introduced by state Sen. Russell Ruderman, D-Keaau-Pahala, would mandate “places of public accommodation,” including hotels, restaurants, movie theaters and health care facilities, to have at least one EV parking space per 100 spaces by July 1, 2018 and two parking spaces per 100 spaces by July 1, 2023.
The current Hawaii law, Act 89 of 2012, mandates that each facility have at least one EV parking space per 100 spaces without any penalties for landowners. The current law only penalizes people who park their non-EV in spaces reserved for EVs with fines between $50 and $100.
Like the current law, the new bill said that each facility will also need to have an EV charging station located anywhere in their parking structure. Places of public accommodation would exclude a park, campsite, trailer facility or other recreation facility.
Non-conforming landowners could be fined $200 per day, and if fines reach total more than $300,000, a lien will be placed on the property. A couple of years ago, state Sen. Mike Gabbard-D-Kapolei-Ewa, proposed imposing fines of up to $20,000 on owners of parking lots with 100 or more public stalls that don’t have at least one charging station for EVs.
His bill, which was killed, proposed that businesses that do not have at least one parking stall with an EV charging station would be fined $1,000 for the first violation, $5,000 for the second violation, $10,000 for the third violation and $20,000 for the fourth and any subsequent violation.
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Hawaii is among the groups that oppose the bill.
BOMA said it “supports flexibility in allowing property owners and their tenants to decide whether or not to install EV charging stations at parking facilities and opposes inflexible mandates for the provision of EV charging stations or ‘EV-ready’ infrastructure.”
“BOMA believes the free market will meet the growing demand and that mandates will only tend to increase costs without yielding the desired benefits,” the group said in its testimony regarding the bill. “Where building owners are able to balance the benefits and potential draw backs, and where it makes economic sense, property owners will move forward to meet the need, without federal, state or local mandates.”
the bill's first public hearing, before the Senate committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Transportation and Energy, was scheduled for Monday afternoon at the state Capitol.