Sorry for the delay in getting this out. There have been… a few distractions…
We started out the evening with three interviews for boards and commissions, followed by a very interesting study session regarding electric car chargers. Councilmember Spitaleri was out of town on an excused absence, so it was just the five of us.
We’re considering changing our building standards so that certain residential construction may have to include wiring for electric car chargers. Chargers can be 110v, 240v, or 480v. What came out of the discussion is that there’s no point to a 110v requirement, because 1) 110v chargers take many hours to recharge a car, and 2) most parking areas have nearby 110v anyway. So the real issue boiled down to 240v. A lot of single-family units have 240v wiring in garages already, due to washer/dryers. But multi-family (condos and the like) don’t. And lacking this wiring already in place, there’s a real disincentive for people to buy an electric car. So if it can be done cheaply, it may be worth requiring additional 240v wiring in some dwellings that may not have it. There’s also the issue of outside, uncovered parking spaces, and how many spaces to require wiring to reach, and so on. This will be coming back to us for a decision later.
Then we moved on to the proper meeting. The consent calendar passed 5-0 with no pulls.
A couple of speakers wanted to discuss the election, and they amounted to campaign speeches. One was for “no on A”, one was sort of for a candidate, sort of a criticism of existing councilmembers.
Item 2 involved the Lawrence Station Area Plan. We asked several questions in email in advance, so this issue wasn’t that involved. But we still asked some more questions, and we approved the phase 1 report on a 5-0 vote.
Item 3 involved establishing graywater standards. Graywater is water put out by showers, clothes washers, dish washers, and so on, which is definitely not potable, but which can be used for landscaping, toilets, or other non-potable water usages. This item went pretty quickly. Staff took part in a regional effort to establish graywater standards, and their recommendation was to adopt an ordinance in line with the recommendation from the working group. And we did so on a 5-0 vote. Primarily, it involves restricting graywayter output from getting near the water table (5-10 feet away from it).
And that was pretty much it. We were off for the election, but we’re back on on the 15th.
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