Electric vehicle charging stations: installation: permits.

In the bill summary (digest), the language regarding attorney's fees was corrected from 'The bill would require authorize a court to award attorney's fees' to 'The bill would authorize a court to award attorney's fees.' This removes an erroneous word and clarifies that the court has discretion to award fees rather than being required to do so.

In Section 65850.7 (Government Code), a typo was fixed: 'approve an application to install an electric vehicle charging stations station' was corrected to 'approve an application to install an electric vehicle charging station.'

Duplicate empty subdivision letters were removed throughout the bill. For example, in Section 65850.71, an empty '(i)' subdivision and a duplicate empty '(j)' subdivision were eliminated, and remaining subdivisions were renumbered accordingly.

Page numbers were updated from 96 to 95 throughout the bill, and several blocks of text were repositioned across page breaks. These are formatting changes with no effect on the legal content.

The bill was reformatted from line-numbered amendment markup (with 'line 1', 'line 2' prefixes) into clean enrolled bill text without line numbers.

Passage dates were added: 'Passed the Senate August 25, 2026' and 'Passed the Assembly August 24, 2026,' along with signature lines for the Secretary of the Senate, Chief Clerk of the Assembly, and Private Secretary of the Governor.

The amendment history (dates of prior Senate and Assembly amendments), the 'Introduced by Senator Ashby' line, and the fiscal committee vote/appropriation/fiscal committee/state-mandated local program lines were removed as part of standard enrollment formatting.

The legislative counsel's digest changed from 'SB 1283, as amended, Ashby' to 'SB 1283, Ashby,' removing the 'as amended' designation now that the bill is in its final form.

Removed authorization for an applicant to file a lawsuit seeking injunctive relief, declaratory relief, or a writ of mandamus to enforce EV station permitting provisions, and removed the provision allowing courts to award attorney's fees and costs (including expert fees) to a prevailing plaintiff.

Reordered paragraphs in the bill summary: the EV station definition and state-mandated local program language were moved earlier in the summary, and page numbers shifted from 95 to 94 throughout due to the deleted content.

The bill now amends Government Code Sections 65850.7 and 65850.71 in addition to the original Vehicle Code Section 241 amendment, expanding scope from buy-here-pay-here dealer consumer protection to include statewide EV charging station permitting reform.

Local governments must administratively approve EV charging stations with canopies (defined as clearance height 17 feet or less, fascia width 4 feet or less, coverage area 5,000 sq ft or less) and onsite energy storage systems sized to support charging, not just basic charging equipment.

Expedited permitting processes must now cover supporting infrastructure including paving, concrete pads, utility trenches, canopies, and onsite energy storage systems. Local governments must amend their ordinances and checklists by December 31, 2027.

If a local government has not adopted an ordinance or checklist, applications must include specific technical information (location, voltage, power ratings, manufacturer details, load calculations, canopy dimensions, energy storage capacity). GO-Biz must develop and publicly post a standardized form and an optional compliance template.

Local governments must provide written notice within 30 days after an application is deemed approved, identifying all permits granted. Applicants may proceed with construction before receiving this notice.

New deemed-complete timelines: 5 business days for applications with 1-25 EVSEs at a single site, 10 business days for more than 25. New deemed-approved timelines: 20 business days after deemed complete (1-25 EVSEs) or 40 business days (more than 25).

The new Section 65850.71 amendments become operative January 1, 2027. The amended Section 65850.7 (first version) sunsets January 1, 2030.

Applicants may now seek injunctive relief, declaratory relief, or a writ of mandamus in court to enforce the permitting provisions. Courts must award attorney's fees and costs, including expert fees, to a prevailing plaintiff.

'Electric vehicle charging station' is redefined from a code-compliance-based definition to 'a physical site where one or more EVSEs are available for use.' A new definition of 'EVSE' (device with one or more charging ports and connectors) is added, along with a new 'canopy' definition.

The no-reimbursement provision is changed: the EV charging station provisions state no reimbursement is required because local agencies have authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the mandated program.

The attorney's fees provision was changed from requiring a court to award fees and costs to a prevailing plaintiff, to authorizing (not requiring) a court to do so, and only if a certain condition is met. This makes fee recovery less certain for applicants who sue local governments over EV station permitting delays.

A new savings clause was added to both Section 65850.7 (EV stations) and Section 65850.71 (combined EV and hydrogen stations) stating that nothing in those sections limits a local agency's ability to: require plans or supporting documentation to verify health and safety compliance; conduct plan checking and document review within the expedited permitting process; and conduct inspections or require as-built compliance with all health and safety requirements of local, state, and federal law.

Corrected 'canopy and or onsite energy storage systems' to 'canopy or onsite energy storage systems' in multiple locations, removing an erroneous conjunction that could create ambiguity about whether both items are required or either one suffices.

All amendments to Vehicle Code Section 241 regarding buy-here-pay-here dealers were removed. This included extending the deadline for assigning conditional sale contracts from 45 to 46 days and related consumer protection provisions.

In the administrative approval provision, the language changed from 'canopy, as defined, and onsite energy storage systems' to 'canopy, as defined, and or onsite energy storage systems,' making it clear that either a canopy or an onsite energy storage system (or both) triggers the expanded permitting coverage.

The definition of 'electric vehicle charging station' was simplified from a longer description referencing Article 625 of the California Electrical Code to simply 'a physical site where one or more EVSEs are available for use.'

The condition for when an application must contain specified information was changed from 'if the local government has not adopted such a checklist' to 'if the local government has not adopted or amended such a checklist,' broadening the trigger to include cases where a checklist exists but has not been updated.