Supercharger - Fort Worth, TX - Clearfork

[mociaf9]

New filing for construction of a 10 stall Tesla Supercharger on the top level of the parking garage at The Shops at Clearfork (same location as the Tesla gallery).

Address: 5128 Monahans Ave. [see "conditions notice" in permit app. for explanation of address discrepancy]
City: Fort Worth; Zip: 76109; County: Tarrant
Scope of Work: Installation of 10 EV charging stalls, 5 equipment cabinets, 1 switchgear, and 1 utility transformer.
Building/Facility Name: The Shops At Clearfork
Estimated Start Date: 01/01/2019
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On 2018-11-29 Tesla applied for a building permit--PB18-14402; current status: Plan Review.

@BlueShift

 

[NoPetrolDream]

Sweet! This is even closer to my house than the Whitmore Street location that is nearing completion.

 

[TexasDuke]

Sweet! This is even closer to my house than the Whitmore Street location that is nearing completion.

Tesla understood that it’s all about you.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Sweet! Between this and Whitmore that's two options, to work around traffic levels at the time, to save having to go back Eastward to charge when jumping Waco to Childress (which is sorta doable under optimal conditions but very slow). These are going to save me 30 min of driving at least.

 

[BerTX]

Meanwhile the second largest city in Texas and the 7th largest in the country gets no love...

 

[NoPetrolDream]

Tesla understood that it’s all about you.

Of course! I would expect nothing less.

 

[kavyboy]

Sweet! This is even closer to my house than the Whitmore Street location that is nearing completion.

I have a supercharger less than 20 miles from my house. I never use it. Why would I if I can charge at home? The cost of power at home is significantly less the my cost in time to drive there, wait around, and drive back.
Your situation may be different, but close supercharges aren't the good ones in my opinion. Superchargers 200 miles away are.

 

[8lincoln30]

I agree with you, Kavy, but there's something reassuring to me about having a Supercharger close to home. Any number of issues could arise with home charging. Not long ago my driveway gate broke, barring access to my garage charger and forcing me to either use 110V+extension cord or charge elsewhere (I chose the latter). Neighborhood outages happen once in a blue moon. Occasionally I forget to charge overnight, and it's almost never a problem, but what if I had to make an unexpectedly long drive the next day? It's nice knowing I could quickly get 100 miles of charge in a pinch.

Plus, it just instills some good ol' pride knowing Tesla thinks my neck of the woods is deserving of an SC.

 

[kavyboy]

I agree with you, Kavy, but there's something reassuring to me about having a Supercharger close to home. Any number of issues could arise with home charging. Not long ago my driveway gate broke, barring access to my garage charger and forcing me to either use 110V+extension cord or charge elsewhere (I chose the latter). Neighborhood outages happen once in a blue moon. Occasionally I forget to charge overnight, and it's almost never a problem, but what if I had to make an unexpectedly long drive the next day? It's nice knowing I could quickly get 100 miles of charge in a pinch.

Plus, it just instills some good ol' pride knowing Tesla thinks my neck of the woods is deserving of an SC.

I agree, actually. It's kind of like how a store with destination chargers opened six miles from home. It came in handy one time since I only have a wall outlet to charge from.

 

[NoPetrolDream]

I have a supercharger less than 20 miles from my house. I never use it. Why would I if I can charge at home? The cost of power at home is significantly less the my cost in time to drive there, wait around, and drive back.
Your situation may be different, but close supercharges aren't the good ones in my opinion. Superchargers 200 miles away are.

Right now I charge on 120 volts at home. Meets my normal daily range consumption just fine. But occasionally I need more juice in less time than that humble outlet can provide to my car. I do plan to upgrade the outlet; just not within reach at the moment. So a nearby Supercharger gives me greater confidence when I am either about to leave for a long road trip, or am returning from one and want to give my home outlet a leg up.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Right now I charge on 120 volts at home. Meets my normal daily range consumption just fine. But occasionally I need more juice in less time than that humble outlet can provide to my car. I do plan to upgrade the outlet; just not within reach at the moment. So a nearby Supercharger gives me greater confidence when I am either about to leave for a long road trip, or am returning from one and want to give my home outlet a leg up.

There will eventually be more of these, 110V and even no-charger owners (many apartment occupants, for example). That's the whole rationale behind starting to roll out Urban SC which tend to be sited a lot differently.

 

[TexasDuke]

Any update?

 

[NoPetrolDream]

Any update?

We drove over there this past Friday evening (1/4) and made our way all the way up to the top of the parking garage. No signs of anything yet. We were speculating where on the top level the chargers might go; there's an offset section in the northeast corner that we're wondering might be the target.

Would be nicer if the station could be one deck lower where it's covered, but apparently that's employee parking. We did note there's a ChargePoint station on Level 3 of the garage. There are also Tesla destination chargers on Level 1, but they are for the Tesla Store on Monahans. I did ask about using them one time and the staff member said as long as there were less than three of the store's cars parked there, feel free. However when we drove by, multiple Teslas were parked there; seemed a lot of cars for inventory/demonstrators.

 

[mociaf9]

Any update?

The building permit hasn't been issued yet. Just today (2019-01-08) it passed the final outstanding subsection review and its status went from "Plan Review" to "Awaiting Client Reply" with a processing note from today that some correction is required. Those corrections seem to be minor paperwork issues:

1. Addressing Review-- The address for the project needs to be changed on all paperwork (i.e. new copies with the corrected address need to be submitted) and in the electronic application from 5188 Monahans to 5128 Monahans to better reflect the actual physical address (i.e. it should be specifically the address of the parking garage and not the address of the general property).
   
2. Plans Coordination-- The electronic files submitted for the Plat and the Energy Code Document contained errors and couldn't be opened. Thus working copies need to be re-uploaded.

There's potentially a third issue which is that the e-filing still shows that the Contractor hasn't been chosen for the project yet (i.e. still marked as Out To Bid). So, it might also be that the permit won't be issued until a GC has been selected and their license verified. Of course, this could also just be out of date information. It's possible the GC has already been chosen but the e-filing hasn't been updated yet.

 

[ℬête Noire]

The building permit hasn't been issued yet. Just today (2019-01-08) it passed the final outstanding subsection review and its status went from "Plan Review" to "Awaiting Client Reply" with a processing note from today that some correction is required. Those corrections seem to be minor paperwork issues:

1. Addressing Review-- The address for the project needs to be changed on all paperwork (i.e. new copies with the corrected address need to be submitted) and in the electronic application from 5188 Monahans to 5128 Monahans to better reflect the actual physical address (i.e. it should be specifically the address of the parking garage and not the address of the general property).
   
2. Plans Coordination-- The electronic files submitted for the Plat and the Energy Code Document contained errors and couldn't be opened. Thus working copies need to be re-uploaded.

There's potentially a third issue which is that the e-filing still shows that the Contractor hasn't been chosen for the project yet (i.e. still marked as Out To Bid). So, it might also be that the permit won't be issued until a GC has been selected and their license verified. Of course, this could also just be out of date information. It's possible the GC has already been chosen but the e-filing hasn't been updated yet.

What about now?

I followed the link in the OP, it looks like the application now has the correct address, 5128, but last week someone with the FD was still complaining about an incorrect address and then did a copy-pasta about address labeling rules? The later in particular doesn't make sense since this is all in the top corner of an existing parking garage.

P.S. Is this paid parking or customer parking for the mall/businesses in the area?

 

[mociaf9]

What about now?

I followed the link in the OP, it looks like the application now has the correct address, 5128, but last week someone with the FD was still complaining about an incorrect address and then did a copy-pasta about address labeling rules? The later in particular doesn't make sense since this is all in the top corner of an existing parking garage.

That update to the application's address happened after the second fire note on 2019-02-05, just 2 or 3 days ago in fact. My guess is that the copy-pasted segment on the display rules is always included by default at the end of any Fire comment about addressing.

Hopefully when the address for the electronic filing got fixed they also sent in the new plans copies with the resolved address and re-uploaded the files for the plat and Energy Code which had initially been corrupted (if that hadn't been competed before). That looks to be all the outstanding items before the permit can be issued. At least, I'm assuming that those are the things that Plans Coordination and Plans Distribuition required correcting/reply about.

 

[TexasDuke]

What about now?

I followed the link in the OP, it looks like the application now has the correct address, 5128, but last week someone with the FD was still complaining about an incorrect address and then did a copy-pasta about address labeling rules? The later in particular doesn't make sense since this is all in the top corner of an existing parking garage.

P.S. Is this paid parking or customer parking for the mall/businesses in the area?

I wonder why the chargers are rarely placed on mid levels in Texas. The Texas sun can be rough on the occupants in the summer while charging. I would think a simple solution would be to place chargers on mid levels on the structures. Is it a tech issue or otherwise?

 

[NoPetrolDream]

P.S. Is this paid parking or customer parking for the mall/businesses in the area?

Parking garage where chargers are supposed to go is customer parking; no fee required. Top of garage is five levels up; it’s a bit of a drive to get up there. At least the Clearfork complex of shops and restaurants is filling in nicely; considerably more choices than just over a year ago.

 

[purplewalt]

I wonder why the chargers are rarely placed on mid levels in Texas. The Texas sun can be rough on the occupants in the summer while charging. I would think a simplesolution would be to place chargers on mid levels on the structures. Is it a tech issue or otherwise?

Parking structures and getting the Landlord to allow Charging infrastructure is a crap shoot.
Every landlord/owner and garage is different.

Colorado Springs, it is first Level.
Atlanta, it is Basement Level (and very difficult to find, extremely large parking structure).
Plano, TX on the roof, three story parking garage.
Normal, IL, I recall it being mid-level in the garage.
Edmonton, BC, upper Level of the garage, but not the Roof.
Las Vegas, first Level.
Former location at Lonetree, CO was in first Level of parking garage.
And there are many more....

Regardless of exposure to sun, rain or snow, all Landlords have their criteria of proximity, logistics (how electric service can be provided and incorporated), the number of parking spaces will be dedicated to Tesla (and other EV) charging.

 

[NoPetrolDream]

A revisit to the proposed site on Friday evening revealed no change, if the superchargers are destined to go on Level 5 of the garage.

With the nearby Tesla gallery now closed, I'm now wondering if the current destination chargers installed at Level 1 of the garage might be converted over to the 72kW urban type superchargers instead. Conduit is already there; just may need an upgrade in electrical service.

Sad to see the gallery closed, as this is where I first test drove a Model 3. But I do get it; if in the long run the store closings reduce overhead while sales volume increases, it would seem like a good tradeoff. Risky....and I think Tesla needs to ensure there is somewhere to go in each major market for test drives (service centers seem best choice). I would not have purchased without one, unless I could have met a Model 3 owner in the interim.