Community Car Chargers?

[MattWarner]

Hello everyone,

I'm proud to say that our community has been forward thinking on green energy. We have been encouraging of houses that would like to add solar panels and car chargers for electric cars, and several houses in our community have these features, despite many of our neighboring communities having no such houses with solar panels or car chargers to date.

Electric cars are here to stay, as evidenced by GM's and Volvo's announcements to transition to electric fleets. However, not all of us can install a car charger as fast as we'd like for various reasons, even if some of us are ready to purchase an electric car.

Would adding metered-billing car chargers add value to the community? Depending on the level of charger, electric cars can take hours to fully charge, so having a car charger that is walking distance to our homes--for our and our guests' use--could be of value. (And adding community car chargers would not preclude Circle Woods Members from adding car chargers in their personal parking spaces for their exclusive use.)

This poll is a first step to find out more information. Preliminarily, it would seem that the community could bill for use on a metered basis such that the community could recover all costs for electricity and maintenance of such a car charger, or we could charge more if we chose.

As we'd need a community-based supply of electricity, any such chargers would likely need to be installed at the visitor spots at the pool house. Moreover, any such car charger would be for the exclusive use of Circle Woods Members and guests, as this would be a benefit for being a Member of our community, and we'd need to make sure that we could unlock any car charger while in use and tow any nonguest or nonmember using the chargers without a visitor parking pass.

Here is one example of a community charging solution for shared parking spaces: https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/apa ... nd-condos/.

Weigh-in by answering the poll. You'll be able to change your vote if you change your mind as the poll goes on for the next 45 days. Also, feel free to reply to this thread with your thoughts.

Best,

[Reddy2019]

I vote "no" for now due to the lack of sufficient visitor parking spaces for the neighborhood. Has the Board ever considered addressing the problem of some residents using the visitor parking spaces as their personal parking spots for days and days? I do sympathize since some homes have more than two cars. However, it is so frustrating when you cannot accommodate a visitor. Perhaps all residents could be required to have a residential sticker in their car. Just a suggestion.

[MattWarner]

Thanks for the reply! Actually, we did pass new parking rules in May that makes it easier to tow those who are abusing the visitor parking spaces. Everyone will receive these rules when you receive your new visitor parking passes, but here is a link to a copy: https://www.circlewoods.org/archives/ho ... -21-20.pdf. We also are issuing the new visitor parking passes to get a better understanding who is abusing the parking.

Section III.3 now reads, " The “VISITOR PERMIT” parking spaces are for the temporary use of visitors to Circle Woods by permit. Visitor parking is limited to 72 consecutive hours—beginning when the vehicle first enters the space—in any seven (7) day period. Rotation of vehicles between visitor-permit parking and reserved parking spaces to circumvent time restrictions is prohibited and subject to immediate towing from the visitor spaces. Requests for extended use of visitor parking space for not more than 14 days may be obtained from the property management company, one time per year per address."

When we get the new visitor parking passes, if we see the same number pass in a visitor parking space all of the time, we'll be able to determine that a house is rotating vehicles with the same pass. Where you see people abusing the parking, please let us know by emailing board@circlewoods.org and rkordi@ghacm.com.

Regarding the particular pool-parking spaces where the car charger would go, there are about 9 visitor parking spaces grouped together in that area and some of those tend to be empty more often relative to other visitor parking areas in the neighborhood. So, hopefully, the overly full visitor parking is less of an issue for the spaces most likely to be considered for this.

Thanks for the good observation and let's hope that the new rules and visitor parking passes work as intended with help from our Members.

Best,

[Cjpilger]

This is a trend that we should get ahead of. Our community has done an excellent job of setting a high bar and for those that want to go electric, we should encourage it. Many of the car companies will either produce a large percentage or have pledged to go completely electric by 2030. Considering the number of EV's in the neighborhood that don't have a level 2 charger, and those that may consider it, I think it would be in the community interest to install them. Additionally, we can set our own pricing, so the HOA can make a profit on it if we should choose. A couple articles for your consideration:

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/10/29/wo ... -ev-plans/

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g3556 ... -timeline/

[MattWarner]

Thanks to everyone who has voted. The poll closes this Sunday. Make sure to vote if you haven't already, as it is likely to affect the Board's direction on this issue.

thanks,

[JimMaiwurm]

Another thought on this: I'm in one of the townhouses that has one reserved parking space across the street. I'm interested in way that people in this situation could get a charger at a space that's not next to their house, like the Winter Pine island.

If Chargepoint (or a similar system) allows people to pay for the electricity used with a card or a phone app, could that someday be used to support chargers that aren't wired into the space owners home?

I know this is a few steps down the road, but it's a problem our neighborhood will have to deal with eventually.