Sugar Land, TX Parking Rules: EV Charging (2026)

Section 5-86, titled Parking; enforcement, bars unauthorized use of two categories of reserved parking: spaces for disabled persons under subsection (a), and spaces reserved for electric vehicle charging under subsection (b). The charging-space rule reaches both public and private property: it is unlawful to block or make unauthorized use of a parking space or area designated and established exclusively for the charging of electric vehicles, which is located either on property owned or controlled by the city or on private property. The ordinance defines unauthorized use broadly to close the most common loophole, parking a car in the space without plugging in: the Code states that unauthorized use includes parking a vehicle in an electric vehicle charging space while not actively charging.

That means a gas-powered car left in an EV spot violates the section immediately, and even an electric vehicle that has finished charging and stays parked in the space after unplugging becomes an unauthorized use. Ordinance No. 2396, adopted December 16, 2025, restructured this part of the Code, renumbering the former disabled-parking-only section 5-86 to become new § 5-87 and inserting the current combined disabled-parking and EV-charging enforcement section in its place. Because the rule applies to charging spaces on private property, businesses that install EV chargers for customer use, such as shopping centers and hotels, can have the city enforce the space against non-charging vehicles once it's properly identified as required by law.