Narberth residents blindsided by EV charging station
NARBERTH, Pa. (CBS) -- A pilot program to make electric vehicle chargers more accessible in Narberth is not flying over with some residents. A homeowner who says she and her neighbors were blindsided when a charging station was installed right in front of their homes.
Betsy Harvey and her family moved to a street in Narberth six years ago for its tight-knit family-friendly community.
"We have 60 years of four-corner baseball on these corners adjacent to here," Harvey said.
But Saturday morning, she was alarmed to come out of her home to see a crew digging up the ground and installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure right off of her front yard.
"It's like putting a gas station in front of someone's property," Harvey said.
Harvey says she doesn't own an EV and neither do her neighbors, so it was upsetting that the Narberth Borough council did not notify residents of a project that raises safety and logistical concerns for some homeowners.
"We have very limited parking on a narrow street," Harvey said. "So if you have cars coming from anywhere to charge they're going to have to parallel park between a number of residential cars. Many of us don't have driveways."
EV charging stations are being installed throughout the borough, it's part of a pilot project aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
"The purpose of installing some of these new chargers is to incentivize people to acquire EVs," Narberth council president Fred Bush said.
Bush says Harvey's street was one of the first of two residential locations. It was considered a good spot for a charging station because installation requires access to a power pole and parking spaces.
However, Bush admits the council made the mistake.
"I apologize to the resident because the borough did not reach out in advance," Bush said.
The charging station outside of Harvey's home was removed Monday afternoon but she says it took complaints from several neighbors and her attorney for the council to respond.
"We support electric vehicle charging just not in a residential area," Harvey said. "It should be in a commercial area that's very publicly accessible. Not around small children and certainly not without the consent of residents."
Narberth has since added criteria for charging locations.
The council president says they will limit them to commercial parking lots and moving forward, will seek support from homeowners before installing one on a residential street.
