CITY OF SAN MATEO
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CITY OF SAN MATEO
Agenda Report
City Hall
330 W. 20th Avenue
San Mateo CA 94403
www.cityofsanmateo.org
Agenda Number: 4 Section Name: NEW BUSINESS Account Number: 10-1311 File ID: 26-11228 TO: City Council
FROM: Alex Khojikian, City Manager
PREPARED BY: City Manager's Office
MEETING DATE: June 01, 2026
SUBJECT:
Equitable Access to Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure — Study Session RECOMMENDATION:
Receive an informational report on strategies, partnerships, and programs to ensure that residents have equitable access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
BACKGROUND:
On-road transportation is the City’s largest sector of greenhouse gas emissions and the transition from gas vehicles to electric vehicles is a key strategy in reducing transportation-related emissions. Widespread availability of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure is critical to ensuring that EV drivers can quickly and easily charge their vehicles. This helps reduce both real and perceived barriers related to electric vehicles. Conveniently located EV charging stations can also encourage EV drivers from other communities to stop in San Mateo, which can provide economic opportunities. The comfort of at-home charging is also important in the transition to electric vehicles. There are three basic types of EV charging: Level 1 is the slowest and adds 2 miles of range in 30 minutes, ideal for overnight charging; Level 2 adds 10 miles of range in 30 minutes and is common in homes, workplaces, and public parking garages; and finally Level 3, more commonly known as Fast Charging, adds 90 miles of range in 30 minutes.
In FY 25-26, the City Council adopted the following City Council priority: “Explore how the City of San Mateo could partner with Sustainable San Mateo County and Peninsula Clean Energy in ‘Charge Forward San Mateo,’ a countywide effort to ensure that residents have equitable access to electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.” This report summarizes staff’s research and efforts to explore strategies including curbside charging, regional partnerships, and targeted outreach and engagement for multifamily property owners.
Curbside charging
Most EV chargers are installed in off-street parking areas, but some cities have implemented curbside charging in effort to increase EV charging access. Curbside charging could entail charging infrastructure attached to a light pole, utility pole, or a standalone unit on the curb. In 2021, Peninsula Clean Energy engaged a technical consultant to study and evaluate the installation of curbside charging. Key challenges identified in their study include electricity submetering, PG&E coordination, and power supply capacity. Installing submetering to measure EV charger use is required and was found to be cost-prohibitive. Furthermore, PG&E coordination is required to investigate electricity capacity of individual power supplies such as light poles, power poles, and existing transformers. PG&E would need to be a willing partner to identify potential opportunities and locations, and then also approve of the curbside charging project.
Additionally, restricting on-street parking spaces to EV charging would impact street parking availability and require enforcement. Due to these challenges, Peninsula Clean Energy has focused on off-street charging through their EV Ready program that is discussed later in this report. Staff will continue to track curbside charging in other communities. The City
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of Los Angeles and City of Alameda are notable case studies that have implemented curbside charging. Both cities operate their own municipal utility which simplifies the process for installation.
May 19, 2026 Countywide Event: “Future-Proof your Multifamily Property” In February 2025, Sustainable San Mateo County kicked off their “Charge Forward” initiative but due to a lack of funding, disbanded this effort after the first meeting. Through the RICAPs group, a collaboration of staff from the County of San Mateo and cities working on climate initiatives, staff has been leading and participating in working groups focused on building decarbonization and electric vehicle charging. In 2025, the working groups decided to host an in-person event for multifamily property owners to connect them with resources to make electric equipment upgrades and install electric vehicle charging in their buildings. This event called, “Future-Proof your Multifamily Property” was hosted on May 19, 2026, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm at the Chan Zuckerberg Community Space in Redwood City. The event included speakers from the Bay Area Air District, BayREN, Peninsula Clean Energy, MenloSpark, CalMTA, GoGreen Financing, and more.
Additionally, exhibitors were tabling at the event to connect attendees directly with resources.
To advertise this event, the planning team sent direct mailers nearly to 2,400 property owners across the County and targeted outreach to specific organizations including the Apartment Owners Association, California Apartment Association, and the San Mateo County Association of Realtors (SAMCAR). Overall, the event was a success with 98 people attending.
The working groups will continue to meet to decide next steps. Possible options include hosting another in-person event, hosting virtual events, and working with partner organizations to present to their members.
Publicly Available EV Charging
Communitywide, the City has seen growth year to year in the availability of public charging available at various public parking lots. The City of San Mateo operates 70 EV charging ports at City-owned facilities, this includes 2 Level 3 charging ports and 68 Level 2 charging ports. Staff rely on crowd-sourced data on Plugshare.com to track the installation of EV chargers on private property that are available to the public. In addition to charging available at City-owned facilities, there are 329 charging ports that are publicly available in the city. This marks incredible growth since 2023 when there was a total of 174 ports. These publicly available charging ports include 159 Level 3 charging ports and 170 Level 2 charging ports.
It is important that electric vehicle chargers, especially Level 2 chargers, are sited close to destination locations whether that be a grocery store, restaurant, gym, or shopping center. In considering how and where to incentivize private employers to expand employee charging to all the general public, it is critical to first consider location. The City of San Mateo City Hall is a great example where this is working, where there are apartment buildings adjacent to City Hall that can use the City Hall chargers after business hours and on weekends. Similarly, the City has received a positive response regarding the EV chargers located at the City’s Corporation Yard at 1949 Pacific Blvd that is similarly located adjacent to multifamily housing. Staff were unable to do further research on identifying specific employers or office parks that might improve equitable access to EV charging infrastructure. Nonetheless, the proliferation of publicly available EV charging over the past two years demonstrates there is both customer demand and economic drivers for public charging.
PCE EV Ready Program
Peninsula Clean Energy EV Ready Program has been in place since 2020 providing technical assistance and incentives. The program has evaluated 350+ sites and resulted in 2,500 ports installed. Through the program, property owners receive contractor and bidding support, negotiated charger pricing, expert guidance on selecting vendors and setting prices, and support navigating all available incentives. In many cases, the program has supported Level 1 and load-managed Level 2 charging to keep costs low and avoid service upgrades. Technology advancements including smart outlets and chargers unlock cost-effective and seamless charging solutions for property owners and tenants. Drivers can pay via app to use chargers and the service provider reimburses the property owner with the revenues collected via app. The property owner is able to set the rates and the service provider charges a fee.
With a recent program revamp and new consultant on board, PCE is focusing on multifamily property owner engagement to share their program resources broadly. PCE will host bimonthly webinars to promote the program; PCE recently hosted a webinar on May 28, 2026 called “Driving Equity and Demand: EV charging 101 for Multifamily Housing” to share more
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about their program. The webinar reviews key considerations for planning and installing EV charging at multifamily properties, from selecting the right charging solutions to navigating installation, costs, and incentives. Staff will make sure to promote these webinars through City channels. Specifically, staff are working with ReThink Waste staff to include the EV Ready program information in an upcoming Recology bill insert for multifamily property owners.
Through this research and exploration, staff found that there are many cities and partner agencies interested in supporting equitable access to EV charging. Curbside charging appears to be the most challenging of the approaches evaluated. Staff plan to continue engagement efforts through the County working groups to identify next steps for coordinated engagement of multifamily property owners. Additionally, staff will partner with Peninsula Clean Energy to promote their EV Ready program to support multifamily property owners. Staff will also conduct additional research to identify specific employers or office areas that might improve equitable access to EV charging infrastructure in the community.
BUDGET IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION:
This informational report is not a project subject to CEQA, because it can be seen with certainty that it will not cause a physical change in the environment. (Public Resources Code Section 21065.)
NOTICE PROVIDED
All meeting noticing requirements were met.
ATTACHMENTS
None
STAFF CONTACT
Andrea Chow, Sustainability Analyst
[email protected]
(650) 522-7007