Building Community Relationships Through Streetlight EV Charging in Kansas City

Installing electric vehicle (EV) chargers on streetlights can be a creative solution to expand EV charging opportunities by using existing infrastructure. Streetlight chargers also can help fill the EV infrastructure gap for people who do not have access to charging through a garage or another off-street option. To successfully fill those gaps, site selection must incorporate input from the people intended to benefit from the chargers, as well as technical specifications.

A pilot streetlight charging project in Kansas City, Missouri funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office illustrates the importance of community engagement when addressing EV charging deserts is a goal. Metropolitan Energy Center (MEC) partnered with the city of Kansas City to explore streetlight charging opportunities and initially relied on technical criteria—parking space availability and proximity to a streetlight—to identify potential sites. But when the project partners met with residents, they learned their existing draft list of sites did not align with the current charging needs of community members.

Residents expressed concerns that the proposed locations were not equitably distributed and were in areas that would not help address charging deserts, where few if any chargers exist. Community members also shared charging locations that would be most beneficial to them, including grocery stores, schools, community spaces, and green spaces. Chargers in these areas also could potentially bring economic opportunities for local businesses. However, many of the locations recommended by community members did not have streetlights and therefore did not align with the prescribed project goals. MEC provided a forum to build connections and understanding between project leaders and community members, especially people living in underserved neighborhoods. MEC attended additional community meetings, answered questions and concerns, and worked to gain the trust of community members by working with local community-based organizations.

Through community engagement and technical feasibility assessments, MEC identified new locations for streetlight chargers and installed 23 throughout Kansas City. These chargers provide much-needed EV infrastructure and the project partners built authentic relationships with informed community members that will last beyond this project. The pilot demonstrated that community voices are just as important as technical details and convinced the partners to shift their approach to future projects to more effectively achieve the city’s goal of increasing equitable access to EV charging.

“We approached this as a technical project when we were writing the proposal. We didn’t approach it as a community engagement process,” said Kelly Gilbert, MEC’s executive director. “That ended up biting us in the rear end. MEC has learned we need to approach literally every project as a community engaged project from the beginning and have changed the way we approach project design as a result of the lessons learned from this.”

On-the-Ground Challenges

To install EV chargers on streetlights technical hurdles related to power supply had to be overcome. MEC and the city pivoted from their initial plan to directly power chargers with utility lines serving telephone poles because the lines were not the right voltage for Level 2 chargers. Instead of upgrading the lines, Evergy, the local utility company supporting the charging station buildout, pivoted to poles owned by the city that received power through underground cables. The original plans were designed for overhead supply to the pole-mounted chargers, and the switch meant more conversations to sort out logistics, the new line installation, and charger ownership. Partners had to identify the available power nearby, upgrade some streetlights to meet electrical circuit ratings, and reassess costs, ultimately reducing the number of chargers that could be installed.

In addition to electrical capacity, the project team also had to incorporate several other criteria when selecting streetlights for charger installation. MEC originally identified 300 city-owned streetlights as candidates based on:

• Cost of installation
• Location in relation to high-traffic areas, EV owner residences, and other EV infrastructure
• Extent of changes needed to existing street infrastructure and signage
• Need to avoid charging cords running across sidewalks.

The sites also had to have both a streetlight and an adjacent parking space, a tricky requirement when factoring in the city’s one-way streets, bike lanes, fire lanes, and other infrastructure. Seventy-five of the sites on the original list of 300 fit all site selection criteria. But not all of those sites were within the target areas to help address charging deserts. At this stage, the project partners turned to community members.

Finding Solutions in Partnership With the Community

MEC collaborated with community-based organizations and transportation equity consulting company EVNoire to inform community members of the pilot project and hold two community listening sessions.

MEC conducted outreach to engage diverse perspectives and specifically sought input from neighbors whose homes were near proposed charger sites and community institutions located near proposed sites. MEC also sent outreach letters to update residents about the project in English and Spanish. Listening session organizers provided Spanish translation for the sessions upon request, and attendees were compensated for their time with gift cards[1].

Listening session attendees discussed the 75 proposed streetlight EV charger sites and non-streetlight locations where community members said they wanted chargers. These sessions became an opportunity for EVNoire and MEC to rectify the initial lack of community input that led to the disconnect between what the project team planned and what community members wanted. Diverse neighborhoods from across the city were represented, and there was a higher proportion of community members from underserved neighborhoods from the east side of Kansas City than residents of other areas. The sessions helped MEC build the trust necessary for open communication that would inform future transportation electrification projects in the city. In this case, even though the pilot project could not address the community’s desire for chargers in non-streetlight locations, MEC and the project team worked with community members to identify other available EV charging station funding options and programs, including future partnering opportunities.

With information gathered from the listening sessions, the Missouri Institute of Science and Technology created maps with site recommendations that reflected community input and data from the EJScreen tool, developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This tool identifies communities of higher environmental justice concern based on demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental information. The project team compiled the site recommendations, feedback, maps, and data into a community feedback report to help choose final installation sites.

Importance of Partnership

Equitably implementing new technologies requires bringing diverse voices to the decision-making table, including people who historically have been excluded. To create their project team, MEC leveraged the local knowledge and established partnerships of the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition, which is housed within MEC. Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition is a partner with Clean Cities and Communities, a U.S. Department of Energy partnership to advance clean transportation nationwide. The project team included:

What’s Next

The city, MEC, and Evergy plan to build on the initial pilot by studying other curbside charging applications. MEC will continue to work with local community-based organizations and community members to explore some community-suggested sites that were not selected for this pilot. MEC is also building on lessons learned to implement a Department of Energy-funded project called EVs in Underserved Markets, offering grants to small businesses, multifamily housing properties, and small towns to install EV chargers, prioritizing underserved communities. This project also generated improved guidance for EV charging station permitting, charger ownership, and parking enforcement.

This pilot project will help bring on-street charging to scale in future years and pave the way for private investment into streetlight charging. The project taught MEC and project partners the critical importance of ground-truthing—validating and modifying models and predictions based on real-world conditions. The project also highlighted for MEC that engaging with the community to understand local expertise and history before determining project feasibility will help a project stay aligned with community priorities through implementation and beyond.

[1] Federal and state funding generally cannot be used to fund gift cards. Funding sources to consider include allowable foundation grants and cash donations.