City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Public Works
Meeting Date: August 18, 2025
Report #:2507-4943
TITLE
Staff and the Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Recommendation to Accept the E- Mobility Strategic Roadmap; CEQA Status - Under CEQA Guidelines Section 15183, Projects Consistent with an Existing General or Comprehensive Plan do not Require Additional CEQA Review
RECOMMENDATION
The Climate Action and Sustainability Committee (CASC) and staff recommend that the City Council accept the E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap (Attachment A) is meant to coordinate and prioritize the City’s efforts in expanding electric mobility options – from electric trucks to electric cars to e-bikes and e-scooters – to meet climate and transportation goals. The Roadmap identifies key strategies and actions that will help the City and its partners support electric mobility (e-mobility) adoption of all sizes, develop charging and other infrastructure to support the e-mobility transition, and ensure electric transportation programs and policies align with related City efforts. The Roadmap’s major strategies focus on: (1) raising public awareness and education around electric transportation; (2) expanding access to e-mobility options and charging infrastructure for underserved groups (such as renters, low-income households, and non-profits); (3) developing public and shared charging infrastructure and mobility hubs; (4) coordinating e-mobility efforts with broader transportation efforts; and (5) encouraging electric-grid-friendly charging and infrastructure practices.
The Roadmap utilizes insights from an EV Charger Needs Assessment, summarized in Attachment B, to address the particular opportunities and challenges of e-mobility.
Furthermore, the Roadmap is intended to complement and support the implementation of other City plans and studies such as the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan and Reliability and Resiliency Strategic Plan.
The Roadmap is not intended to be a Work Plan. Instead, it guides other work efforts. Staff has included a summary in Attachment A of how the Roadmap could guide current work efforts, as
well as some potential work items for the 2026-2027 S/CAP Work Plan Climate Section, along with an explanation of how they would be guided by the Roadmap’s strategies and actions.
On June 13, 2025, the Climate Action and Sustainability Committee considered the E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap. The Committee recommended Council approve the Roadmap with the following edits:
Edits to Strategy 4 to be clear it applies to residents, not just non-residential community members.
Modifications to Strategy 5, Action 1 language for clarity and to make sure it reflects the Committee intent to promote public and workplace charging at advantageous rates compared to adjacent electric utility rates.
Ensure Strategy 2, Action 3 acknowledges the potential need for charging infrastructure in Palo Alto to support electric transit and aviation in addition to the other uses mentioned in that action.
These edits have been incorporated into the attached E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap.
BACKGROUND
In June 2023, the City Council adopted the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) and approved the 2023-2025 S/CAP Work Plan. The E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap fulfills the 2023– 2025 S/CAP Work Plan Item 2.5A, which directed staff to develop an EV Strategic Plan. It is meant to align with the policy guidelines in Appendix C of that document and complements the Reliability and Resiliency Strategic Plan, which focuses more heavily on the electric distribution system impacts and benefits of e-mobility and other technologies. This E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap is intended to provide a coordinated approach to achieving several relevant S/CAP Goals and Key Actions, as described in the Roadmap itself.
ANALYSIS
The E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap identifies five main strategies to promote electrified transportation:
1.Raise Awareness: Increase public understanding and adoption of electric transportation through comprehensive education, safety and outreach campaigns, community events, and partnerships.
2.Expand Access for Underserved Groups: Address barriers faced by renters, low-income households, multi-family residents, businesses, commuters, and visitors by expanding electric transportation charging infrastructure, providing technical assistance, and creating shared mobility programs like carshare and e-bike lending.
3.Public & Shared Infrastructure: Develop strategically located public EV chargers and mobility hubs near multifamily developments and employment centers, fostering public- private partnerships to ensure accessibility and utilization.
4.Integrate Micromobility: Enhance integration of e-bikes and e-scooters with transit and existing bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure, improving first- and last-mile connectivity and encouraging multi-modal transportation.
5.Grid-Friendly Charging: Implement smart charging practices, including load management and grid-responsive solutions, aligning with broader goals outlined in the Reliability and Resiliency Strategic Plan to support grid stability and resilience.
These Roadmap strategies are meant to guide the role of e-mobility in Palo Alto's existing sustainability and mobility programs and its future programs, as described in Attachment B. The City currently hosts EV and e-bike events, runs EV discount campaigns, and operates an EV Technical Assistance Program to help multifamily properties install electric vehicle chargers.
Additionally, programs like Safe Routes to School and events such as “Bike to Wherever Day” promote active transportation. The Roadmap would guide these activities by, for example, including promotion of e-bikes and e-scooters to enhance active transportation and transit use, while making sure infrastructure to support these technologies and conventional bicycling is included when installing e-car charging infrastructure.
The Roadmap would also be used to shape upcoming initiatives. As noted, the Roadmap is not a work plan, but work items achieving its goals would be included in the 2026-2027 S/CAP Work Plan.
Staff is currently finalizing an EV Charger Needs Assessment report that will summarize the results of analysis and research completed to guide the City’s EV charger construction investments. It will be brought forward to the CASC and Council by December 2025. Key preliminary insights from that plan are included in Attachment B; all of these insights are reflected in strategies and actions in the Roadmap. Two scenarios were examined in the needs assessment: a moderate “Light EV Charging” scenario focusing mainly on home and workplace chargers, and a “Robust EV Charging” scenario envisioning significantly expanded public charging infrastructure to attract a greater share of commuter and visitor EV charging. The assessment recommends prioritizing home charging for multifamily residents as the most cost- effective approach, supplemented strategically by public fast chargers to serve drivers without private options. It assesses that the charging price needed to support public charging in Palo Alto is similar to the cost of home charging in nearby cities, emphasizing that public and workplace charging projects should be approached carefully to avoid underutilization.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
There is no additional fiscal or resource impact associated with the E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap, since this document is meant to guide other work efforts. The fiscal and resource impact of potential 2026-2027 S/CAP Work Plan items will be evaluated through the 2026-2027 S/CAP Work Plan development process.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
E-Mobility has been a topic of a number of public meetings about the S/CAP, and input from these meetings has informed this Roadmap. These include:
•Various public and private meetings of the S/CAP Ad Hoc Committee and its Working Group from 2021 – 2023
•June 5, 2023 Council meeting adopting the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan and the 2023-2025 S/CAP Work Plan, including guidelines for development of an EV Strategic Plan (now E-Mobility Strategic Plan)1
•Oct 30, 2024 Planning & Transportation Commission meeting on shared micromobility 2 •Meetings of the Climate Protection Committee and its Working Group in June 2024, September 2024, and November 2024 focused on the E-Mobility Strategic Plan and EV Charger Needs Assessment
•June 11, 2025 Climate Action Working Group review of the E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap. Comments received during this meeting included: ensuring promoting e- mobility as a last mile solution through programs in addition to infrastructure development was clearly reflected in the plan, ensuring all transit stations serving Palo Alto were considered for e-mobility solutions, including potential needs of electric transit, and being explicit that efforts to reduce the impact of e-car charging on electric infrastructure included electric utility infrastructure as well. All of these comments were addressed and are reflected in redline in the attached E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Potential environmental impacts of an EV Strategic Plan (now E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap) were analyzed as part of the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) Addendum to the Comprehensive Plan Environmental Impact Report. On June 5, 2023 (Staff Report #2303-1158), Council certified the Addendum, which found that S/CAP programs would not result in any significant or substantially more severe effects beyond what was previously analyzed in the Comprehensive Plan EIR. Under CEQA Guidelines section 15183, projects consistent with an existing general or comprehensive plan do not require additional CEQA review.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: E-Mobility Strategic Roadmap
Attachment B: Insights from EV Charger Needs Assessment APPROVED BY: Brad Eggleston, Director Public Works/City Engineer 1 City Council, June 5, 2023; Agenda Item #14; SR #2303-1158, https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=66100&repo=r-704298fc&searchid=20bd3e8a-803e-4bcf- 82d5-43cd090f5cdf
2 Planning and Transportation Commission, October 30, 2024: Agenda Item 3; SR #2410-3586, https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/Portal/Meeting?meetingTemplateId=13744