Brookfield trustees will have staff check if electric vehicle charging stations can be placed along Brookfield Avenue across from village hall and in the parking lot off Congress Park and Elm avenues at Ehlert Park within the confines of state grant funding.
At their Oct. 13 committee of the whole meeting, trustees considered proposed locations for four dual EV chargers at village hall and three at Ehlert Park. The village has received $140,000 to put in the charging stations through the Driving a Cleaner Illinois grant program and will put up $76,000 on its own to meet the state’s contribution.
Shawn Benson, a representative from contracted firm Wight & Company, told the village board the firm had identified the southwest side of the front parking lot at village hall as one option to situate the chargers and the north side of the back parking lot as another.
Village Manager Tim Wiberg said he was opposed to placing the chargers in the front parking lot at village hall.
“These spots are premium, and on a typical day in the summer, our parking lot’s full,” he said. “I’m no expert on this, but I see often in shopping centers, those EV parking spaces are generally empty, but they’re reserved for EV parking. My concern is tying up eight parking spots here in front of village hall.”
Benson said the location in front could save some money compared to out back when it comes to connecting the chargers to existing electric services.
Trustee Jennifer Hendricks said she felt the front spaces made more sense as a way to draw EV drivers to downtown Brookfield than the back spaces.
“I feel like using it all day long for commuter parking [in the back] is potentially tying it up longer than it needs to be tied up,” she said.
Community Development Director Libby Popovic said the village’s plan for the chargers was not to allow commuters to use them all day or have people park in the spaces to charge overnight, but the board can direct the use of the spaces as trustees see fit.
Wiberg introduced the idea of placing the chargers at parking spots along Brookfield Avenue just south of village hall, but Popovic said she would have to check with the administrator of the grant funding to see if that location would be permissible under the agreed upon constraints of the grant.
Village President Michael Garvey said he was wary of locating the chargers in the front parking lot, permanently taking up space that has historically been used for events held in the lot, like the Brookfield Farmers Market in the summer and the Kris Kringle Market in December, in addition to having less space for visitors to village hall.
“On a typical day, all those spots are filled when village hall is open. I assume most of those people are either employees or people using the village hall,” he said.
Trustee Katie Kaluzny suggested splitting the four dual chargers into two groups of two to avoid monopolizing any one part of the parking lot, though Trustee Kyle Whitehead said he worried doing so could make them less visible. Trustee Nicole Gilhooley, who drives an electric vehicle, said she thought other drivers would learn the locations either way as they factor them into travel plans.
The board agreed to consider the issue further at a future meeting after Popovic could ask the grant administrator whether the chargers would be allowed along Brookfield Avenue rather than in the village hall parking lot.
For Ehlert Park, Benson said Wight recommended placing the chargers in the northwest parking lot near the corner of Elm and Shields avenues, though a location closer to the fire department was also considered feasible. He said new electric services would likely be more efficient to implement than connecting the spots to the fire department’s existing services.
Whitehead asked if Wight had considered the parking lot off Congress Park Avenue, which he viewed as one of the most active parking lots for the park. Benson said they had not been directed to do so and, similarly, the location would need to be checked with the grant administrator for approval.
Kaluzny said the northwest lot may be preferable if Brookfield’s aim is to put the chargers in for nearby residents to use in place of at-home chargers.
The board similarly agreed to consider the placement at Ehlert Park further once there is clarity on which parking lots could be used under the grant.