It will eventually cost users to charge their electric vehicle at city-owned charging stations in Overland Park, but likely not from the get-go.
Earlier this week, the Overland Park City Council’s Community Development Committee voted 5-1 to recommend adopting an initial fee structure for the city’s expanding network of electric vehicle charging stations.
The policy, if ultimately adopted by the full Overland Park City Council, sets the amount it will cost to use the chargers and establishes an idling fee — a cost incurred if someone remains plugged into a charger after their vehicle has finished charging.
What will it cost to use Overland Park’s chargers?
- Under the policy both city staff and now the committee have recommended, it will be free to use city-owned chargers for the first year of their operation or until a station reaches 20% utilization during the hours it is available.
- Lara Isch, Overland Park’s sustainability manager, said that’s a pretty low bar to clear, considering the chargers currently available at the city’s Myron Scafe building on Antioch Road already have about 60% utilization.
- After the first year has passed or the utilization threshold is met, it will cost users 15 cents per kilowatt hour to use a city-owned charging station.
- An additional 40 cents per minute will be charged for idling past a one-hour grace period.
Most committee members seemed comfortable with the plan
For the most part, during the discussion on Wednesday and in past versions of this debate, the majority of the committee has supported proceeding with this type of charging policy.
The idea of offering the chargers for free at first and then starting to apply a fee to use them after a defined length of time or based on other metrics was first suggested in the city’s new Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan.
“I’m fully comfortable with what’s presented. I think it’s in line with what our consultant provided to us,” Councilmember Logan Heley, who owns an electric vehicle himself, said.
Councilmember Scott Mosher cast the lone dissenting vote Wednesday, voicing discomfort with the prospect of not charging people to use the EV stations from the start.
“Once you give somebody something free, and then you go back and try to charge for it, there’s a huge uprising on that,” Mosher said. “I think we should start charging out of the gate. I think that’s fair for all residents of Overland Park. Nobody gets gas for free.”
Heley pushed back against Mosher’s comparison to gas-powered vehicles, saying it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.
“You cannot make a comparison to charging electric vehicles and filling up at the gas pump. I mean, it’s two completely different things,” he said. “You’re talking about charging your laptop versus filling up your lawnmower with gas.”
Councilmember Inas Younis also seemed on the fence about the issue, but she ultimately voted with the majority to support the charging fee policy as written.
Overland Park is prioritizing EVs
In the last few months, Overland Park has taken a more aggressive tack when it comes to expanding its electric vehicle infrastructure, including adding chargers across the city.
Earlier this year, the city council endorsed the city’s first Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan, a 95-page document that also recommends how to electrify the city’s fleet. Read the full adopted EV readiness plan here.
The city council also greenlit a new ordinance that aims to limit “ICEing” — that is, the act of blocking an EV from using a charger intentionally by parking a vehicle with an internal combustion engine in the way. Violators of that policy can face fines.
Overland Park has also taken steps to add more public charging stations for EV drivers at places like Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead, Maple Hills Park and the future Bietigheim-Bissingen Park.
The city is also using federal funds to help finance the purchase of more charging equipment for five additional public facilities, including the Matt Ross Community Center and the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center, as well as the Overland Park Convention Center.
Next steps:
- The EV charger fee policy goes to the city council for consideration next.
- Without unanimous support from the committee, the item will likely be placed on the council’s regular agenda, where it might face a lengthy discussion.
- Down the line, the city may need to adjust the cost of using an EV charger based on the cost of electricity, which could be decided by the city manager, per the draft policy.
Keep reading: Overland Park to add more EV chargers at these 5 public facilities
