Yellowstone County, MT Parking Rules: EV Charging (2026)

Section 27-1009.K, Electric Vehicle Charging Station, is one of the county's use-specific accessory standards in Article 27-1000, the same article that governs accessory dwelling units, home occupations, and community gardens. The section opens by carving out what it does not cover: charging equipment inside a personal garage attached to a dwelling unit, and charging stations the County itself installs within the public right-of-way. Neither of those needs to comply with the rest of the section.

For every other installation, the code sets two operative standards. First, the charging station must be associated with an approved off-street parking space, meaning it cannot be dropped into a yard, a required setback, or an area that was not already approved for vehicle parking on the site plan. Second, the equipment itself, the charger pedestal, cord, bollard, or conduit, has to be positioned so it does not impede pedestrian movement or create a trip hazard, whether that pedestrian route runs through the public right-of-way or along any pedestrian pathway on the property.

Because the standard sits inside Article 27-1000's accessory-use chapter rather than the parking or site-plan articles, it functions as a condition on top of whatever off-street parking the property already has, not a stand-alone permit. A homeowner or business adding a station to an existing approved parking space does not need a new parking analysis, but a station proposed for an area that has not been approved for parking would need that approval first before the charging station itself could be installed there.