In April 2021, Matthew Schantin a campaign coordinator with Environment New Jersey sat down with Grey Russell the Sustainability Officer in Montclair Township to discuss his efforts in installing EV charging stations in Montclair and the unique challenges and successes that he encountered along the way—
To begin the discussion, we asked Mr. Russell about how the electric charging station process began. He responded with how the idea was sort of a passion project for himself, especially considering how few municipalities had undertaken such a task around 2009-2010 when he began the effort. Grey shared how he helped design the Sustainable Jersey program, and once it launched in 2009, he submitted an application making Montclair Township one of the first municipalities to participate. With acceptance of their application, Montclair was awarded grant funding for four charging stations and their installation in two different parts of the city.
Grey said the charging stations were located in publicly accessible parts of town where they would get the most use.However, he suggests that other municipalities that are struggling to expand or fund their charging infrastructure, consider entering into a cost-sharing agreement with their business district. This partnership could allow the growth of charging infrastructure beyond what municipalities can offer on their own and further reduce range anxiety for EV owners.
Next, we asked Gray whether the municipality had to alter any codes or regulations to allow for the installation of the charging stations. He said there was no real change to any sort of electrical regulation or code, and that that was relatively straightforward and overseen by the town's electrician. However, Gray did say that they had to revise the local ordinances to deal with non-EVs parking in the charging spots. They established a law and penalties that could be enforced for illegally parking in the spot.
Next we asked Gray about any kind of negative feedback that they ran into while installing charging stations, especially as Montclair was one of the first townships to embark on this endeavor. He said there was very little pushback from the community, given the added benefit that having charging stations would ultimately bring to both the community and local businesses. Gray did mention though that some negativity came from both EV drivers and fossil fuel vehicle owners when certain charging stations required maintenance. This created a situation where EV drivers couldn’t charge and fossil fuel cars couldn’t park due to ordinances. Therefore municipalities should either consider making charging stations a top maintenance priority to alleviate the situation as soon as possible or consider amending their ordinances to allow for free parking when the station is out of service.
To wrap up the conversation we asked Gray about some suggestions he might have for fellow municipalities going through the charging station installation process and what next steps he sees for Montclair. He echoed some of his earlier sentiments about partnering with the business district to help share in the costs of both purchasing and installing charging stations. He then mentioned the need to transition municipal fleets to electric vehicles and recommended that municipalities take advantage of the existing grant programs like It Pays$ To Plug In in order to afford the investments. With that he talked about Montclair’s effort to begin transitioning their own fleet by purchasing an electric vehicle for a nurse in the medical department. These efforts he says will ultimately be the future, and that if we can get over some of the initial hesitations and start investing in real electric infrastructure then we can make the full transition. An electrification endeavor that would not only save money when it comes to maintenance and fuel costs, but one that would reduce air pollution and make for cleaner communities.
