Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger Make-Ready Requirements for New Developments

As a condition of preliminary site plan approval, new non-residential developments with parking lots and garages must meet the following make-ready requirements:

Parking lots and garages may install make-ready parking spaces and EV chargers at a faster rate than required. Retailers that provide 25 or fewer off-street parking spaces are not required to provide or install any EV chargers or make-ready parking spaces.

Parking lots and garages may install EV chargers in lieu of make-ready spaces to satisfy these requirements. Standards must be developed that provide for the progression of accessible make-ready parking spaces to accessible EV charger parking spaces and conform to the requirements of the most recent International Building Code and International Residential Code published by the International Code Council except as the Commissioner of Community Affairs (Commissioner) deems appropriate to deviate from those codes.

In September 2021, the Commissioner of Community Affairs (Commissioner) published a model land use ordinance to address installation, sightline, setback requirements, and other health- and safety-related specifications for EV chargers and make-ready parking spaces and posted the model land use ordinance on the department’s website. Requirements include the following:

• A parking space with an EV charger or make-ready equipment may count as two parking spaces for the purpose of complying with a minimum parking space requirement but may not reduce total required parking by more than 10 percent.
• All parking space calculations for EV chargers and make-ready equipment pursuant to this section shall be rounded up to the next full parking space.

The model land use ordinance applies to all municipalities in New Jersey, but municipalities may adopt reasonable standards to address installation, sightline, and setback requirements or other health- and safety-related specifications for EV charging stations and make-ready parking spaces. Municipalities may not require more make-ready parking spaces than the land use ordinance published by the Commissioner.

(Reference New Jersey Statutes 40:55D-4, 40:55D-5, 40:55D-66.20, and 40:55D-66.21)