Rosemont will not allow any new electric-vehicle charging stations to be installed in parking garages for the foreseeable future. The village board voted Monday to make what had been a temporary moratorium indefinite, and Mayor Brad Stephens confirmed the ban will stay in place until officials figure out how to install the equipment safely.
The decision, reported by the Chicago Tribune, extends a rule Rosemont first adopted as a one-year moratorium in March 2025. That original ban was a direct response to a car fire at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago parking garage on January 18, 2024, and the newspaper reports there have been no other car fires in Rosemont fueled by long-burning lithium-ion batteries since the restriction took effect. Stephens said the ban will remain until “they can figure out how to do this stuff safe,” according to the Tribune.
Building owners will not be forced to rip out charging stations already in their garages. Under the ordinance as described by the Tribune, owners simply cannot install new ones. CBS News Chicago, which also covered the vote, reported that existing charging stations will remain in place and that the ban does not affect residents installing electric chargers on their own personal property.
The Fire That Started It All
The fire that triggered Rosemont's original restriction happened in January 2024, when an electric vehicle burst into flames while charging inside the Fashion Outlets of Chicago garage. Patch reported that the vehicle had to be removed and parts of the garage closed as a result. The mall's garage has a significant EV charging footprint — the Tribune counted six charging stations on the first floor of the 2,800-space structure, with ten more on the sixth floor, while the Daily Herald had earlier reported eight chargers on the first floor.
Stephens has described the aftermath of EV battery fires in blunt terms. “They've been a complete mess to deal with,” he told the Daily Herald ahead of the original vote. That concern about lithium-ion battery fires being difficult to contain has shaped the village's approach ever since, even as officials acknowledge no additional incidents have occurred.
Who the Ban Actually Covers
There is some ambiguity in the public record over exactly which properties the restriction touches. The text of Rosemont's code of ordinances states the section applies to both commercial parking garages and “all other single-family and multi-family residential parking structures,” but the Daily Herald reported separately that the ban does not apply to residential garages. That discrepancy has not been resolved in available reporting. Separately, CBS News Chicago reported that the ban does not stop residents from installing electric chargers on their own personal property, a distinct point from the question of residential parking structures.
The ordinance language made available publicly describes a temporary moratorium running from March 10 through September 30, 2025, and allows charging stations installed in parking structures before that March 2025 date to keep operating. That text predates this week's vote to make the ban indefinite, so it establishes the framework of the earlier, time-limited rule rather than the exact legal language of the current open-ended restriction.
A Regional Pattern Takes Shape
Rosemont is not acting alone. The Tribune reports that since Rosemont's original moratorium, other Northwest suburban towns — including Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village and Schaumburg — have approved their own regulations on EV chargers in parking structures. The concern has surfaced beyond Illinois as well: the Daily Herald noted that officials in Milford, Connecticut, banned new EV charging stations in underground parking garages back in February 2024, and that State Farm removed charging stations from parking decks at its Bloomington headquarters, citing fire risks the insurer said could not be mitigated at the time.
For now, Rosemont property owners with existing chargers can keep using them, but anyone hoping to add new stations to a parking garage will have to wait. Village officials have not given a timeline for when that might change.
