Ready For Electric Vehicles? Town Ponders Policy Governing Public Charging Stations

CHATHAM – The town may be leading the way among Lower Cape towns when it comes to encouraging electric vehicle use, but town officials say there needs to be a policy in place before public charging stations are built so that clear rules are in place for their use, including fees and fines for violators.

The town already has several chargers available for municipal vehicles. The policy is designed to govern new chargers that the general public can use.

“We’re imminently moving in the public charging realm,” Principal Projects and Operations Administrator Terry Whalen told the select board last week. He presented the board with a two-page draft policy that was reviewed by the energy and climate action committee on April 16. The document is needed, he said, to cover various aspects of managing public charging stations, like the ones to be installed soon at the Eldredge garage lot.

That project is nearing completion, with construction expected to be finished in late May or early June. The lot has been previously managed by Chatham Valet, which is expected to submit a proposal to do so again this summer. In addition to public restrooms, improved parking spaces and a bike maintenance station, the lot will have spaces for eight electric vehicles to charge. Four of those spots will be for so-called Level 2 chargers, which take between one and six hours to top off an EV battery; the remaining four are Level 3 chargers, which can do the job in as little as 30 minutes.

Here, the Level 2 chargers are best for people visiting the downtown area for several hours, likely including employees of local businesses. Level 3 chargers are best suited for people visiting for a short time, for instance, to have breakfast in a local restaurant, Whalen said.

The policy will “establish the authority to set and collect fees, to implement a fair and equitable fee schedule,” Whalen said. He credited Executive Assistant Cathy Lewis, who did a “great job in canvassing communities around the commonwealth” to see how they structure their fees. Generally, communities charge a per-kilowatt-hour fee that considers the cost of electricity, payment processing fees by the vendor, related computer costs and maintenance or warranty agreements.

“All of these items need to be factored in here into the development of a fee so that it can be structured to recover some of the costs,” Whalen said.

The public chargers are designed to provide an economic boost for downtown businesses, since users will need something to do in the time it takes for their charge to complete — and the hope is that they will spend the time shopping or dining. The charging stations have broader benefits, however, Whalen said. They “really do support the town’s commitment to environmental conservation, coastal resilience” and other natural resources goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he noted.

The draft policy authorizes the use of signs that can set time limits for the use of charging spaces, or prohibit parking there except while vehicles are actively charging. It may also be wise to have signs that promote the charging stations and direct visitors to them.

“Many of the vendors have apps where you can search online, but maybe if you were just driving around as well, it might be helpful to have some wayfinding signage,” Whalen said.

Police Chief Michael Anderson has also weighed in on enforcement, and said the department is looking at how EV parking space violations can be incorporated into the new paperless parking ticket system. He specified that any signs referencing violations should include the specific amount of the fine, and must have special wording if violators are subject to towing.

A next step would be to flesh out some of the details in the policy, including the specific fees.

“The policy is really intended to be flexible so that we can adopt a fee schedule — or fee schedules, depending on locations and different parameters — as we move forward,” Whalen said.

Select board member Shareen Davis urged that the signs and fee schedules be kept as simple as possible, ensuring that “whatever we do, it’s consistent across the board.”

To ensure maximum availability of the parking spaces, board Chair Cory Metters asked whether drivers would be updated about the status of the charging spaces at the Eldredge garage lot.

“Would we want to discuss with the valet service about, if someone were charging a car — probably they’d go shopping, dining, whatever — would we then have the valet relocate it out of the charging area into a parking space as part of a service, separate from what we’re charging them?” he asked.

Community Development Director Katie Donovan said the question could be posed to the valet vendor. She also recommended forwarding the draft policy to the parking solutions working group, which is expected to meet later this month.

“We have a finite number of parking spaces in Chatham,” Resident Elaine Gibbs said, and the EV charging spaces will tend to benefit visitors, since residents would be more likely to charge at home. “The full-time residents seem to be put on the back burner on a lot of these projects,” she said.

Board member Jeffrey Dykens wondered how the town will pay for future public EV charging stations around town and whether grants are available to support those installations.

“Do we have any idea how many total charging stations we’d like to have in the town of Chatham?” he asked.

Whalen said the energy and climate action committee has advocated for a plan that identifies locations and a broader strategy. The town needs to be able to react to changes in technology and changes in consumer demand for EVs, Whalen said.

“I think the key word here is flexibility,” he said.