Milwaukee officials are inviting public input on a plan to add 53 electric vehicle charging stations, mostly in the city, with six in Milwaukee County suburbs.
This week, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson signed a city document formally accepting nearly $15 million in federal money to pay for the chargers. Johnson says parking lots outside Milwaukee Public Libraries will be first on the list to receive the units and that at least 40% of the chargers will be in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
While studies show most charging of electric vehicles is done at the owner’s home, publicly accessible sites help people who live in apartments or are on the go around the metropolitan area.
Johnson and Erick Shambarger, Milwaukee’s director of environmental sustainability, say the public can still help shape further use of the federal grant by visiting the City of Milwaukee's website.
“When we put this grant application together, we had to come up with sites pretty quickly. We didn’t have enough time to really engage the public the way we wanted to. But now there is some time to do that,” Shambarger says.
“Where would you want to spend time while your EV is charging?” Shambarger asks.
He explains that most of the chargers will be what’s known as Level 2 chargers, which can take up to an hour, depending on how much driving time the owner wants to add to the vehicle.
Federal rules require locations to have four dedicated spots for chargers.
“There definitely could be changes (in the site list) based on community priorities and feedback,” Shambarger says.
One thing that probably can’t be changed is the timeline. Johnson says the city will select a private firm over the next year to finance, maintain and operate the charging system. Installation of the stations won’t begin until 2026, with the process continuing through 2030.
The public would pay to use the chargers.
