FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Summit County, Utah (February 3, 2021) – To encourage the transition to electrified transportation and the use of electric vehicles and renewable energy, Summit County Manager, Tom Fisher, waived building permit fees for the construction of electric vehicle charging stations and solar photovoltaic installations completed in 2021. This action builds on the continuous executive action since 2013 to reduce the costs associated with expanding distributed generation via solar photovoltaic. New this year is the additional encouragement to install electric vehicle charging stations for public and private use.
Residents seeking to install these systems will still need to submit building permit applications for review and receive a permit from the Building department. With the fee waiver, however, the cost to residents will be lower. Retiring Summit County Sustainability Manager, Lisa Yoder, expressed how the fee waivers support the County Council’s goals, particularly as expressed through Resolution 2019-29. “Helping the community transition to using renewable energy and electric vehicles is critical to working towards the Council’s greenhouse gas reduction and transportation electrification goals”, explained Yoder. “In addition, using solar to charge electric vehicles can help residents reduce vehicle operating costs and help protect air quality.”
Incoming Summit County Sustainability Manager, Emily Quinton, stated the relevance of the fee waivers in the vision for a resilient community, sharing “as technology evolves, solar will be a key part of a resilient community. Combining solar with battery storage, for example, can help power essential equipment during a power outage and can help manage demand on the utility grid. Combine that with electric vehicles, and we can begin to see a system in which both our built environment and transportation systems are powered by low carbon energy sources.” Additionally, the financial impact of the fee waiver is minimal, equivalent to approximately the permit fees of six average size homes.
For more information on the solar photovoltaic and electric vehicle charging permitting process, please visit https://summitcounty.org/262/Building.
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Media Contact
Emily Quinton
Sustainability Program Manager
Summit County
equinton@summitcounty.org
435-333-1522