New Legislation Makes It Easier to Install Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in New York

by Mindy Cohn

In order to enable a smoother transition to electric vehicles, legislation that will remove barriers to the installation of electric vehicle charging stations on private property passed in late November.

The legislation is intended to contribute to New York State's goal of reaching 850,000 zero-emission vehicles by 2025 and for all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035.

Without a robust charging station network, New Yorkers may be discouraged from seeing electric vehicles as realistic alternatives to gas-powered vehicles. This legislation will prevent homeowners' associations from prohibiting homeowners from installing charging stations on their private property while allowing associations to provide input on the installation process. 

The new law will require that any denial of a homeowner's application to install an electric vehicle charger be in writing and contain a detailed description of the reasons for the denial. If no written denial is issued to the homeowner within 60 days, the application will be deemed approved unless the delay in approval resulted from the homeowners' association's reasonable request for more information.

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation. Under the Climate Act, New York plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 while ensuring that at least 35 percent, with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.