Belmont’s City Council has passed an ordinance calling for more electric appliance replacement and vehicle charging infrastructure in the city, taking inspiration from state laws.
The reach code ordinance focuses on new multi-family and commercial buildings being all-electric and adding more electric vehicle infrastructure and charging stations based on type and use. Reach codes are additional local enhancements to state building codes that address using natural gas, building electrification and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. With the changes, the city is covering multiple aspects of land use, including single-family homes, residential, commercial, biotech and life sciences.
Vice Mayor Davina Hurt said the ordinance will help the state end the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2035.
“I’m fully supportive of reducing our carbon footprint through transportation and getting ahead of what’s going to be the future, which is everyone is going to pretty much have EV chargers, and I think if we start steering our populace in that direction, sooner than later, it will just be easier in the future,” Hurt said.
The city is pursuing a more aggressive policy in electrification because the local joint powers authority Peninsula Clean Energy is providing carbon-free electricity. It also noted switching from natural gas can lower its greenhouse gas emissions numbers.
The new reach codes require a higher percentage of electric vehicle infrastructure and charging stations in business, multi-family residential and single-family housing.
The council adopted a similar ordinance in June. The city is adopting a new ordinance in conjunction with the state reach code cycle update coming at the end of 2022. The council introduced a draft reach code first reading on Dec. 13.
The motion passed 4-1 at a Jan. 10 council meeting, with Councilmember Tom McCune voting against it.
McCune said by email he supported most of the ordinance but felt there are areas where it made citizens be early adopters of technology that haven’t been out in real world conditions long enough. For example, he felt it was too soon to make heat pump water heaters the only option available. He also had concerns about feasibility and cost for everyone. However, he was fine with requirements for electric vehicle charging.
“Personally, I would love to live in an all-electric world where all of the electricity comes from clean, green, renewable and highly reliable sources,” McCune said by email. “That would be great and I believe we will get to that point some day in the future. But we are not there today.”
The council also adopted its 2022 California Building Standards Code around mechanical, plumbing, fire and electrical codes. The proposed building code amendments focus on fire and light safety and are mostly a continuation of previously adopted amendments from previous code cycles with new codes related to fire sprinklers and higher fire resistance measures.
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