BOSTON – At this week’s Boston City Council meeting, Councilor Ed Flynn filed a hearing order to discuss the community process for installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the City of Boston. On March 6th, the City of Boston sponsored a meeting to discuss proposed locations for EV charging stations throughout South Boston and the South Boston Waterfront, including (14) at 420 D Street, (6) at 655 East First Street, (4) at 406 Congress Street, and (8) at 1005 Columbia Road. At that time, the community was able to offer feedback on these proposed sites by the City; however, in recent weeks, residents on Linden Street subsequently received a flyer at their door indicating an EV charging station would be built on their street with no public process.

While Councilor Flynn has constituents that own EVs and understands that the City will seek more locations to provide charging infrastructure, he continues to stress that a thorough community-driven process with the residents and their duly elected officials would result in a more sensible approach on appropriate and central locations than simply placing them in front of owner’s homes on residential side streets. Neighbors at Linden Street have highlighted that the West Broadway municipal parking lot is a five minute walk and already contains EV charging stations. Moreover, they expressed concerns on how an EV charging port would directly take away a parking spot from the majority of the residents and families on Linden who do not own an EV. Some have raised concerns that this would seemingly become a year-round, de facto space saver, and clearly exacerbate current parking issues. Naturally, residents across South Boston have noted the potential for a similar dynamic to play out on their street.

In December of 2021, Councilor Flynn held a hearing to discuss the City’s plan to install EV charging infrastructure. Given South Boston’s existing parking crisis, he continues to emphasize that the City of Boston instead minimize parking impacts and review the use of both municipal and Boston Public School (BPS) parking lots, partnering with state and federal colleagues on suitable areas near recreational fields and facilities, and most of all – pursuing partnerships with nearby gas stations, our retail pharmacy chains, grocery chains, shopping centers and other commercial areas that have the existing infrastructure in place to support their adoption, such as South Bay Shopping Center.

Currently the City has two approaches to installing curbside EV charging infrastructure, including through Public Ownership at City Assets, where the City works with a vendor – Better Together Brain Trust in partnership with Flo – to install and maintain charging ports adjacent to public amenities; and “Licensing the Right-of-Way”, which is a public/private partnership where residents who own a building can join the City’s selected vendor waitlist  – Itselectric or Greenspot – to become a property partner. In the public/private partnership approach, the vendor would install and operate the stations at no cost to the City. Residents can request and install public charging stations in front of their homes, and existing developments must acquire an electrical permit by submitting an application with approval from a licensed electrician and the Boston Inspectional Services Department.

“In the final analysis, the City of Boston simply cannot continue to make changes without feedback from neighbors and expect to maintain the public’s trust. As the City expands its EV infrastructure to meet the growing demand, genuine and transparent community engagement with the residents of Boston and their elected officials is critical to selecting central, appropriate and reasonable locations that would not look to exacerbate our existing parking crisis,” said Councilor Flynn. “To mitigate quality of life issues, the City needs to work diligently on partnerships with our gas stations, retail pharmacy and grocery chains, and shopping centers that have the existing infrastructure at their disposal.”

For more information, please contact Councilor Flynn’s office at 617-635-3203 or [email protected].