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City staff and consultants ask Eugene Sustainability Commission for input on EV infrastructure roadmap
Summary
City staff and consultants presented a phase‑one plan to map and prioritize publicly accessible electric‑vehicle charging sites; commissioners pressed for equity, maintenance and grid‑capacity analysis and appointed a commissioner representative to the project team.
City staff and consultants presented a draft framework May 20 to guide where Eugene should prioritize publicly owned electric‑vehicle (EV) charging stations, stressing that phase one will identify candidate sites and evaluate feasibility but does not include construction funding.
Brandon, the city’s EV coordinator, told the Sustainability Commission the consultant contract focuses on “identifying site locations, feasibility of those site locations,” and producing a prioritization framework that will be applied on a map to recommend and rank sites (Brandon, Staff). McKinstry consultants Danny Grady and Eric described the firm’s role in developing the framework, stakeholder outreach and a community survey planned for June to broaden input.
Danny Grady, McKinstry project manager, said the team will consider both technical factors — electrical capacity and constructability — and non‑technical factors such as proximity to retail and workplaces and serving residents who lack home charging, especially multi‑unit dwellings. “We want to look at how we can support community members…that may not have access to their own charging infrastructure at the place that they call home,” Grady said.
Consultants demonstrated PlugShare data showing limited DC fast charging in downtown Eugene and several fast chargers concentrated at car‑dealership locations. Eric, an energy analyst, highlighted grid constraints on fast chargers: “a DC fast charger may be rated at 150 to 250 kilowatts, but if the grid cannot handle that power output, the car may only be getting 80 to 100 kilowatts.” The team said later feasibility phases will evaluate electrical capacity at priority sites and provide rough cost estimates.
Commissioners focused questions on equity, costs and long‑term reliability. Commissioner Devon raised an equity concern about older or used EVs’ shorter ranges and how that affects charging frequency for lower‑income drivers who may rely on public chargers. Commissioners also asked for comparative cost information between level‑2 and DC fast chargers and for clarity about maintenance and uptime; consultants said maintenance contracts and ongoing operations will be part of later feasibility work and that private operators sometimes offer service agreements to cover maintenance.
Several commissioners urged integrating EV siting with broader resilience goals — for example, locating chargers with solar or battery storage at community resiliency hubs, schools or fairgrounds. Commissioner Alexi suggested considering microgrids and bidirectional vehicle‑to‑grid opportunities as a future use case.
The commission voted to designate Commissioner Alexi as its representative to the project advisory effort; staff said the role will be limited to intermittent meetings and email input through the contract period, expected to wrap up in early 2027. Staff and consultants said the project team will finalize the prioritization framework after stakeholder feedback and run a two‑week public survey in June before mapping recommended sites and later producing feasibility and cost work in the fall.
What’s next: the project team will issue the community survey in the coming weeks, finalize the framework this summer, and return with mapped priority sites and feasibility estimates in later project phases.
