Research · Legal Pathways · September 2026
Does Alexandria need a new law, or merely a new license?
Alexandria has broad authority over its public right-of-way. That authority is the source of both the restriction and the solution: the City may regulate residential charging crossings, and the City may authorize them. This page maps the routes already in the Code, quotes the 2026 amendment that added publicly accessible EV charging equipment to § 5-2-29, and sets out a four-stage ladder in which the stages overlap rather than wait on one another. It does not argue that residents have an unlimited right to place equipment in the sidewalk. It argues that the City already holds every tool it needs.
Not legal advice, and not settled
Several conclusions on this page turn on how the City Attorney reads the Code, and they are presented as questions for that office rather than as settled law. Quotations of § 5-2-29 are from the ordinance text as introduced (Legistar File 26-0642, Attachment 1; public hearing and final passage 21 February 2026). The legal-policy brief cites the enacted measure as Ordinance No. 5619; the introduced text carries no number, and the number has not been independently confirmed. Section 5-2-13 is described from the brief and was not retrieved verbatim.
Four stages, running in parallel
The proposal is a ladder, not a single rule. Each rung is a lawful way for a household without a driveway to reach residential electricity, and none is a precondition for another.
Now
Approved removable protector
Allowed where site conditions and the published standard are met. The immediate tool and the fallback.
Immediate administrative option
Residential public-access license
A bridge under the 2026 EV encroachment amendment, if the City Attorney agrees it reaches homeowner-funded equipment. Explored and drafted here.
Preferred permanent service
City-installed flush crossing
A recessed channel delivered as an ordinary City service request, not a resident excavation permit.
Durable policy
Dedicated residential framework
A residential charging category in guidance or code, so access no longer depends on public availability. The drafted options.
These stages overlap. None waits on another to finish, and a household can move between them. Policy can be in motion while infrastructure improves.
The authority
The Commonwealth lets localities both prevent unlawful encroachments and authorize them. Virginia Code § 15.2-2009 permits a locality to authorize encroachments on public rights-of-way “subject to such terms and conditions as the governing body may prescribe” — language the City's own curbside charging license agreement quotes in its first recital, alongside § 2.04(e) of the City Charter. Alexandria's regulatory power over the sidewalk is therefore not an obstacle to residential charging. It is the instrument that would authorize it.
The proposition this site actually argues
Not that a resident may occupy the sidewalk at will, but that Alexandria may regulate these crossings, and Alexandria may also authorize them. The practical question is what conditions make a crossing safe, accessible, manageable, and fair — and which of the routes below gets a household there with the least friction.
What § 5-2-29 says after the 2026 amendment
The introduced text restructures the section into three parts. Subsection (a) sets encroachment requirements: a permit from the director of T&ES, who “may establish rules and procedures for processing permits and administering this section”; review for undue obstruction, access and safety, nuisance and hazard, and design; fees under §§ 3-2-82 and 3-2-85; insurance “as required and approved by the city”; and removal on ten days' written notice if the director finds the encroachment “interferes with public access or is otherwise inconsistent with the public welfare.” Subsection (b) lists what “may be authorized by permit”: non-permanent, moveable encroachments; stationary encroachments; and, new in 2026, publicly accessible EV charging equipment. Subsection (c) provides that anything else “may be authorized only by special ordinance adopted by city council.”
| Route | What it is | Where it leads | What it needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| § 5-2-29(b)(1) — non-permanent, moveable encroachments | The administrative permit hook for objects placed on the sidewalk. Today's implementing types are planters, benches, street furniture, and similar. | The natural home for an approved removable protector, once a published type and standard exist. | Director's rules under (a)(1), or the narrow exception clause in Option A. |
| § 5-2-29(b)(3) — publicly accessible EV charging equipment (2026) | Charging infrastructure “available for use by the general public, without restriction to a particular property owner, individual, or entity,” under a license agreement with the City. | A possible residential public-access license: homeowner-funded equipment open to any EV driver who lawfully parks there. A bridge, not the destination. | A City Attorney reading that the category reaches homeowner-owned equipment, and a second, lighter license form from T&ES. |
| § 5-2-13 — temporary sidewalk crossings (by analogy) | As described in the brief: certain temporary crossings are allowed when the sidewalk, pedestrians, and traffic are properly protected and the permittee holds the City harmless. | Not direct authorization for charging. Evidence that the Code already accepts temporary intrusions when protections are adequate. | Nothing; it is an analogy. Text not independently retrieved. |
| § 5-2-29(c) — special ordinance | Council authorizes an encroachment that fits no administrative category. | Available in principle; built for porches and stoops, as the brief for counsel shows with Ordinance No. 5371. | A Council ordinance per address. Not a program. |
| Excavation authority — permanent flush infrastructure | The framework for cutting the sidewalk: today a resident-facing permit at $250 per block plus bonds. | The recessed channel, delivered instead as a City service request. | A standard detail, a fee or subsidy, and an approved-contractor arrangement. |
The public-access route, read closely
The 2026 amendment is worth quoting because its framing differs from the program built on it. Subsection (b)(3)(a) defines the new category by who may use the equipment: “electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is available for use by the general public, without restriction to a particular property owner, individual, or entity.” Subsection (b)(3)(b) requires installation and operation “consistent with a license agreement between the owner and the City.” Subsection (b)(3)(c) incorporates the “City of Alexandria EV Charging Requirements,” which the director may amend. Nothing in the ordinance text limits the owner to a commercial vendor.
The implementation is narrower. The license agreement the City published with the ordinance recites that “the Licensee is in the business of providing, operating, and maintaining curbside electric vehicle charging infrastructure for public use,” and its site-host clause says the licensee “is encouraged to enter into third-party site host agreements with commercial buildings, including multifamily housing, rather than single-family residential buildings.” Resolution No. 3364 sets the fees for the category: a $100 processing fee, an annual charge of $1.50 per square foot of right-of-way occupied, and $140 a year for each EV-charging-only parking space. Those are program choices, made under the ordinance, and the director may make different ones.
A residential public-access license, as an experiment
Under that reading, a homeowner could fund approved charging equipment connected to the home's electrical service; receive a simplified right-of-way license; retain no exclusive right to the parking space; make the charger genuinely available to any EV driver who lawfully parks there, free or at a cost-recovery price; maintain and insure it; and accept inspection and revocation conditions. Free public charging may be the cleanest pilot because it avoids billing altogether.
This is not the preferred permanent residential policy. Residents should not ultimately have to become miniature public charging companies to use their own electricity, and a rule that requires it would create its own inequities. Its value is as an administrative bridge and a test of where the real constraint lies — in the law, or only in the current license design. If T&ES can issue a second, lighter license class under authority Council has already granted, near-term action would not have to wait for another ordinance.
The question to put to the City Attorney and T&ES
Does Alexandria need a new law, or merely a new license? Specifically: does § 5-2-29(b)(3), as enacted, permit a license for homeowner-funded EV charging equipment that is genuinely available to the public — and may the director issue a simpler license form for that case under the rulemaking authority in subsection (a)(1)?
A residential license, drafted
To make the bridge concrete, a proposed Residential Curbside EV Charging License Agreement has been drafted as a residential-scale counterpart to the City's commercial curbside charging license. It is proposed policy language for discussion, not an official City document, and its insurance, indemnification, accessibility, and fee terms are written to be reviewed by the City Attorney, Risk Management, and T&ES before anything is adopted. Download the draft (.docx, 22 sections and three appendices).
| Term | The draft |
|---|---|
| Nature of the grant | A revocable, nonexclusive license for a specific location, configuration, and equipment. No property interest, no reserved parking space. |
| Where the charger sits | The EVSE may stay on private property. Verge installation is an option under separate approval, not a requirement. |
| Temporary surface crossing | An approved removable protector is an authorized configuration in its own right. Authorization is not conditioned on first building a permanent crossing. |
| Permanent crossing | A substantially flush channel is the preferred long-term condition where feasible, obtainable through a City service request rather than a resident excavation permit. Nobody is forced off a compliant temporary crossing merely because a permanent one becomes available. |
| Public accessibility | Available to the public on nondiscriminatory terms when the adjacent space is lawfully free, with no obligation to move the licensee's own car or to run continuously. Free charging satisfies the requirement during a pilot; no commercial payment network is required. |
| Insurance | Homeowner's or renter's liability at a residential-scale amount set by T&ES. Commercial general liability, commercial auto, workers' compensation, and similar operator coverage are not required merely because a resident holds the license. |
| Term and transfer | One year, streamlined annual renewal while nothing material changes, and a simple assumption form on sale rather than a fresh site review. |
| Enforcement | Written notice and a chance to cure before suspension, immediate action for genuine hazards, and revocation that must not become a back-door prohibition where a safe configuration exists. |
| Standards over time | T&ES may amend the crossing standard prospectively; existing compliant equipment need not be replaced unless a real safety or accessibility concern arises. |
| Appendices | Topics for a separately adopted Residential EV Crossing Standard; a seven-step administrative workflow from request to renewal; policy notes for City review, including that a future dedicated residential category should not need to require public use at all. |
Whether the City's 2026 authority reaches this form is the question posed above. The draft is written so that, if it does, T&ES could issue it under existing rulemaking power without a new ordinance.
What each route asks of the City
- Authorize safe protected crossings now. Interim performance standards, an approved-product process, charging-only deployment, no parking reservation, weather restrictions, inspection, and revocation — the standards already drafted.
- Request a written interpretation of the 2026 amendment on the residential public-access question.
- Pilot the residential public-access license if it is available: free or low-cost public access, no reserved parking, simplified insurance, a single-port residential form rather than commercial-vendor terms.
- Create the City-installed flush-crossing service: a standard detail, an eligibility screen, a published fee or subsidy, and a simple request. How it would work.
- Create the durable residential category, in guidance or code, so that residential charging access no longer depends on public availability, allowing both approved surface protectors and flush crossings with the latter preferred where feasible.
The perfect crossing should not become the enemy of the safe one
Vehicle purchases happen now, and a gasoline car bought because home charging looked impractical stays on the road for most of a decade. The cost-of-waiting analysis shows why a year of delay outlasts the delay itself. The right standard is therefore not “wait until the permanent program is complete.” It is: allow what can be made safe now, use existing authority creatively next, and make the better crossing an ordinary City service as the program matures. We can protect pedestrians and stop losing time.
Sources
- City of Alexandria, Legistar File 26-0642: Attachment 1, Encroachment Ordinance Amendment (an ordinance to amend and reordain § 5-2-29, as introduced; first reading 10 February 2026; public hearing and final passage 21 February 2026); Attachment 3, License Agreement and City of Alexandria Curbside EV Charging Requirements. Retrieved 14 September 2026.
- City of Alexandria, Resolution No. 3364, Resolution to Establish Fees for Publicly Accessible Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Encroachments into the Public Right-of-Way (2026).
- Code of Virginia § 15.2-2009; Alexandria City Charter § 2.04(e), as recited in the City's license agreement.
- Alexandria City Code §§ 5-2-13, 5-2-16, 5-2-29; § 5-2-13 characterized from the legal-policy brief, not retrieved verbatim.
- Residential Curbside EV Charging in Alexandria: Existing Legal Authority, Low-Burden Implementation, Interim Access, and a Path to Permanent Infrastructure, legal-policy working brief, September 2026 (.docx), which cites the enacted amendment as Ordinance No. 5619.
- Encroachment on the Public Right-of-Way in Alexandria: A Resident's Brief for Counsel (September 2026), for Ordinance No. 5371 and the permit landscape.