Greetings, Here is an article for all the EV folks here in Miami. http://cggazette.com/absolutenm/templates/indextemp.aspx?articleid=3598&zoneid=1
====================================== Free parking for electric cars in City Beautiful? By Sebastian del Marmol [EMAIL PROTECTED] (CORAL GABLES) City floats idea of having free parking for electric cars By Sebastian del Marmol In an effort to further conservation efforts in the City Beautiful, Coral Gables will soon be providing some free parking for electric vehicles in the city, although how much and what kind of free parking is still very much in debate. The Coral Gables Commission approved a resolution asking the city manager to investigate how to promote the use electric cars by giving them free parking but stopped giving electric vehicles carte blanche to park anywhere in the city. For one thing, the cars likely won’t be allowed free access to on-street parking seeing as how such parking is already in great demand and dwindling seemingly with new development. Instead, Parking Director Kevin Kinney said the city should consider giving free or discounted parking to electric cars that park in city parking garages throughout the city. “We already know we have difficulty managing our on-street parking but we would support some kind of discount in the garages where we could control demand and supply,” Kinney said. The idea is the brainchild the city’s Economic Development Board which in turn got the idea from resident William Holly who owns the first green high-rise building in Miami-Dade County. Holly had educated the board on the growing use of neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) and members made a motion to recommend to the city commission that the city waive all parking meter and municipal parking charges, both on street and off-street, with a three hour (on street) time limit. Board Chairman Richard Dewitt spoke before commissioners at their Feb. 26 meeting and told them that the specifics of the city-program were not as important as the message it was sending to residents about its support of greening and conservation efforts. “The important part is that we are making some kind of recognition or statement to encourage conservation – to highlight that the city is sensitive to the environment,” Dewitt said. “How we accomplish that we are willing to work with but this is a first step.” Although the commission was supportive of encouraging the use of NEVs they brought up some problems economic and enforcement issues which could arise if the program was made to widespread. Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers asked specifically what kind of vehicles should qualify for the discounted or free parking and suggested the city better define the parameters of any future program. He went as far as saying that it could be discriminatory for the city to allow electric cars free parking while not giving discounts to hybrid or similarly fuel efficient vehicles. The commissioner also suggested that the city consider assigning parking spaces for certain types of fuel efficient or electric cars much like those that are reserved for handicap drivers. Mayor Don Slesnick said that whatever cars were given breaks on parking he didn’t think their were so many that it would have a real negative effect on parking revenues or lost spaces although Commissioner Ralph Cabrera said that he was noticing a lot more electric cars in use these days.Eventually, the commission unanimously authorized in 4-0 vote (Commissioner Maria Anderson was not present) the city manager to move forward with creating a program to discount parking at off-street locations for electric only cars. _______________________________________________ Florida EAA mailing list [email protected] http://www.floridaeaa.org
