An electric vehicle plugged into a fast charger in Rutland on Feb. 17, 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerFor two years, the only spots in Brandon with a parking meter racking up fees were the electric vehicle charging spaces. That seemed “fundamentally unfair” to Tom Guiles, a town selectboard member and EV owner.At a Brandon selectboard meeting earlier this month where members agreed to set the electric vehicle charging fee to be commensurate with electricity cost, Guiles rekindled the conversation about this lingering grievance about the additional parking fee. Brian Coolidge, another selectboard member, said in an interview that the parking fee was implemented to cover maintenance costs and ensure that the EV chargers do not burden taxpayers.Other municipalities in Vermont are also grappling with the question of who should bear the lion’s share of the EV energy and maintenance costs and how those funds should be collected, especially weighing the wider benefits of EV usage. The charging and parking fee structure in Brandon has covered the cost of the chargers “plus a little bit of margin,” said Town Manager Seth Hopkins, adding that the downtown charges have been an economic development tool and an asset for the town.“That’s a high use spot for us,” said Hopkins. “The main benefit to the town is that people coming through will charge their car and then walk around town and visit shops, patronize restaurants, and go to cultural events.”Bronywn Cooke serves as the planning and policy manager for the Department of Housing and Community Development, which funded Brandon’s chargers in 2019 through the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment grant, along with over 100 other charging stations around the state since 2014. Brandon’s walkable downtown made it a prime location, said Cooke.READ MORE Phil Scott signs annual transportation bill with new fees on electric vehicles by Shaun Robinson June 3, 2024, 7:02 pmOctober 27, 2024, 11:06 pm “At the time our funding was focused on investing in EVs in the public realm,” Cooke said. “We were really looking for areas where people could safely walk to other things to do while they were waiting for their vehicle to charge.”Brandon’s selectboard came to a compromise at the recent meeting and amended the $1.25 hourly fee for parking so it kicks in after two hours. Hopkins said two hours is around the time it takes a level two electric charger to finish charging, according to data collected by Charge Point, Brandon’s EV charger service provider. Further north, Barre City has taken a different approach to the EV chargers installed there in 2014 through the same state grant program. Nicolas Storellicastro, Barre’s city manager, said the city canceled its contract with ChargePoint a few years ago and eliminated charging fees. The city found it could save more money paying for EV owners’ electricity compared to maintaining the contract with Charge Point, according to Storellicastro. But, in July of this year, Barre implemented a fee of $2 per hour to use the parking spot, which is reserved for electric vehicles. Storellicastro said Barre charges for parking for all other spots downtown and people were lingering in the EV parking spaces too long. The city has not fielded any complaints from residents so far about the new charge, he said. “We solved the issue by encouraging and incentivizing people not to be parked there all day,” said Storellicastro. “By doing that we’re freeing it up for whoever needs to use it on a somewhat regular, limited basis.”The town of Bennington is also reconsidering its EV charging fee model. Bennington’s chargers have been free to use since they were installed in 2014 through the same grant Brandon and Barre received, said Paul Dansereau, the director of Bennington’s Facilities, Buildings, and Grounds Department.But, as EV owners increasingly use the chargers, the town’s electricity costs have surged. Charging data provided by Charge Point showed that on Dec. 16 Bennington’s electricity cost in the previous 30 days amounted to $642, in addition to the overhead cost of Charge Point’s service, Dansereau said. Dansereau and Mark Sawyer, Bennington’s assistant director of facilities, buildings, and grounds, are preparing a proposal for the selectboard to amend the town’s charging system. Dansereau said the proposal would set a fee structure to create a “self-sustaining fund” for “operation, maintenance and to continue to expand the program” by installing chargers in other areas of Bennington. There is no timeline for the presentation of the proposal, but Dansereau said Bennington residents would be able to offer public comments when that time comes.Cooke, with the Department of Housing and Community Development, said as long as fee structures are properly communicated to the public, municipalities can add fees on top of charging costs and still meet best practices established by the state. The differing approaches to EV charger fees is reflective of the “learning curve” of Vermont municipalities as more people in the state begin to shift toward structuring life around EV usage, Cooke said. “Part of the challenge is treating parking differently than we have before,” said Cooke. “The infrastructure is changing, so the way we think about parking has to change.”Patrick Murphy, state policy director for the Vermont Agency of Transportation, said parking fees would be more accurately characterized as a “hold-over charge” in the electric vehicle industry. READ MORE Burlington Electric to install 200 new EV charging ports with federal grant by Auditi Guha August 29, 2024, 6:33 pmAugust 30, 2024, 12:58 pm “It is less about the value of the parking space itself but more about incurring turnover and so that folks don’t over use the public resource, and in that way facilitates the sharing of it,” said Murphy. Guiles, the Brandon selectboard member, said he understands the need to charge electric vehicle owners in line with the cost burden of municipalities and the state. He noted that, on the state level, starting in 2025, EV owners will contribute to the fund for road maintenance through an annual fee, which was previously only funded by a gas tax. But, Guiles said municipalities and the state should consider the economic and environmental benefits of electric vehicles when creating local and statewide fee structures in order to avoid creating additional barriers for access to EVs.“The nuance that I’m trying to get across is, at the same time that electric cars should be paying a tax for using the roads, we should also be finding a way to incentivize electric cars so more people use them,” said Guiles. Jeremy Gildren, an energy planner for the Rutland Regional Planning Commission, said public access to affordable EV charging is particularly crucial for renters because of “split incentives” for renters and property owners that create additional cost barriers. “Everybody who has an electric car wants to charge at home,” said Gildren. “But, if you rent, you can’t necessarily put in a car charger because you don’t own the property, and you might have a property owner that does not allow that, so that’s where public charging infrastructure becomes really important.” The Drive Electric Vermont program uses state funds to incentivize the purchase and use of EV vehicles and improve access to public charging, workplace charging and multi-family charging.Dave Roberts, the program’s coordinator, said people prefer to charge at home because of convenience and low costs, so a crucial part of the program has been offsetting the cost of installing EV chargers for those who rent or own multi-unit dwellings. Murphy said the state transportation agency has been working to improve EV charging infrastructure adjacent to exits of highways through the National Electric Vehicle Incentives Program. He said the agency has considered socioeconomic factors and the needs of areas when determining the location of EV charging grants so infrastructure is built out strategically.  Investments in EV chargers around the state offer an opportunity to avoid the downsides of the traditional model of a gas station serving as a pit stop, Murphy said. He hopes publicly accessible EV charging infrastructure developments will bring people to village centers, boost local economies and build stronger communities.“I think that the important difference that comes up when thinking about these stations more holistically is how they could provide more benefit, not just to the driving public, but also to the communities in which they’re located,” said Murphy.Bernie Carr, executive director of the Brandon Area Chamber of Commerce and a merchant downtown, said that even if EV owners don’t purchase from local businesses while waiting for their vehicle to charge, the town’s charging infrastructure helps put Brandon’s vibrant downtown on the map. “If nothing else, it’s going to give you someone who knows the downtown and then says, ‘I got to come back,’” said Carr. Read the story on VTDigger here: As Vermont invests in EV charging infrastructure, municipalities look to balance costs with public access concerns.