Overland Park is taking some early steps toward adding more electric vehicle charging infrastructure and expanding its own fleet to include more electric-powered vehicles.
Last week, the Overland Park City Council Community Development Committee took the first stab at the new plan drafted by the engineering firm Olsson, unanimously recommending its adoption.
The new 95-page plan makes no policy decisions — like whether to charge drivers to use any public charging stations and how much — but does aim to help the city make plans “to implement a thoughtful strategy identifying needs and best practices.”
“Its sustainability components are great, but it’s more a recognition of reality and how we need to plan for the future,” said Councilmember Logan Heley last Wednesday in support the plan.
Read the full draft EV readiness plan here.
Where might public EV charging stations go?
The plan also recommends a few public buildings to place chargers for EV vehicles, either for the city to plug in its current and future EVs as well as for public use.
Those include:
- Myron Scafe Building
- Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens
- Scheels Soccer Complex
- St. Andrews Golf Course
- Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead
- Matt Ross Community Center
- City Hall
- Sykes Lady Golf Course
- W. Sanders Justice Center
- Bluejacket Pool
- The future Marty Park
- Overland Park Convention Center
- Stonegate Pool
Which of those facilities could eventually have charging infrastructure, what that could look like and the timeline for each of those possible installations is unclear at this time.
Some chargers, such as those recommended for the Parks and Recreation Headquarters, the Dennis Garret Public Works Building and the city’s fleet maintenance building, would just be for Overland Park to charge city vehicles, not for public use.
Overland Park could convert some of its existing fleet to EV
- Overland Park’s city fleet already does contain some EVs, though those make up a small percentage. Of the 480 vehicles in the city fleet, just three are EVs currently in use.
- Those vehicles are used in IT, the city manager’s office and public works. An additional Ford Lightning pickup truck has been ordered for the parks and recreation division as well.
- The readiness plan cites a need to “establish a clear and measurable goal for the transition to EVs.”
- Still, the plan estimates that about 19% of the standard fleet is “ready for the EV transition” and could be “replaced at the end of their current service life” with EV alternatives.
- An additional 22% of the fleet was identified for “possible EV transition,” but the report notes that shifting those vehicles may prove “more difficult” due to cost and other factors.
Overland Park’s next steps:
- The Overland Park City Council will get a presentation on the new EV Readiness Plan next.
- Then, the full council will vote on the plan’s adoption.
- Later, the city council will also need to make decisions about whether and how much to charge for use of the EV chargers as well as any potential parking codes for the stations.
- Those decisions will likely filter through the Community Development and Public Safety Committees, respectively.
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