Overland Park will require all vehicles parked at public electric vehicle charging stations to be actively plugged into the charger.
Earlier this week, the Overland Park City Council voted 10-0 to approve the new ordinance in the city’s traffic code. The item was part of the city council’s consent agenda, which means it was authorized alongside a series of other procedural items without discussion.
Council President Logan Heley and Councilmember Drew Mitrisin were both absent from the meeting.
Overland Park is emphasizing EVs with new plan
Earlier this year, Overland Park started solidifying its electric vehicle plans by adopting its 95-page Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan.
That plan fell short of formalizing any policy decisions, but it laid out recommendations aimed at helping the city “implement a thoughtful strategy identifying needs and best practices” for EVs.
It also suggested departments in which Overland Park could potentially expand its electric vehicle fleet overtime and identified possible public-facing city facilities that might be a good fit to set up EV chargers.
That included mostly spots that attract community members and visitors, such as the Matt Ross Community Center downtown and the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.
At the time the city’s EV plan was adopted 11-1 in March, Councilmember Melissa Cheatham called it “essential,” noting that she felt it was “timely, if not overdue.”
Read the full adopted EV readiness plan here.
Vehicles parked at city chargers have to be plugged in
- The new ordinance prohibits vehicles from taking up a marked electric vehicle charging station that it isn’t plugged into.
- Violations of the ordinance can result in fines starting at $100. The minimum fine ramps up with every subsequent violation in a calendar year.
- While the ordinance is geared toward city-owned charging stations, private property owners who have their own EV chargers can opt into the ordinance as well.
- Find the adopted ordinance here.
Overland Park also bought two solar EV chargers
- Additionally, the city council signed off on the use of federal funds to acquire and install two solar electric vehicle charging stations.
- Those stations will be placed in Maple Hills Park near 85th Street and Switzer Road, as well as the future Bietigheim-Bissingen Park — named for Overland Park’s German sister-city — near 159th Street and Quivira Road.
- The purchase of the two new chargers cost just under $200,000.
- The cost to buy and set up the stations is covered by money from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Next steps:
- Overland Park still hasn’t formalized a fee structure for use of its public EV charging stations.
- Further deliberation on that issue is expected at the Overland Park City Council Community Development Committee in the next couple of weeks.
- Any policy related to fees for city-owned EV chargers would go to the wider city council for approval before being implemented.
- Any future EV charging station or vehicle purchases over a certain price point would require city council approval as well.
Keep reading: City moves forward with EV chargers at popular south Overland Park spots
