By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Electric vehicle charging stations are the wave of the future, and with many electric vehicles already on the road in Westport, charging stations are needed in town, Planning and Zoning Commission members agreed Thursday. 

But is the type of charging station Westport wants seven feet tall, with five-foot-wide screens flashing/rotating advertisements, installed in the Stop & Shop parking lot? 

Not so much, the zoning commissioners appear to agree.

Westport “isn’t Las Vegas”

“We don’t have billboards in this town. I don’t think this is way to do it. This isn’t Las Vegas,” P&Z commissioner Neil Cohn told representatives from Volta Charging, a San Francisco-based company, whose charging stations were reviewed for the supermarket plaza.

John Stuckey, director of site development for Volta, presented a plan to install two EV charging stations in the Stop & Shop parking lot, 1790 Post Road East.  

The parking lot is a good location because it is near Interstate 95; many shoppers would be passing by the stations to see the advertisements, and they would keep customers in the grocery store longer while charging their vehicles, contributing to higher sales for the store, Stuckey said. 

“The advertising component is essential,” he said. Without it, “there’s no way to make our money back.”

Not charged up over location, “the look”

Although every P&Z member attending the meeting said they favor more EV charging stations in Westport, Volta’s plan featuring large advertisements on the stations is not their preferred approach.

Commission member Amie Tesler Bentley asked Stuckey if the charging stations could be placed farther back in the parking lot, instead of in the front row of parking, as proposed in the Volta plan. 

Mothers with young children and disabled people need the parking near the front of the store, she said. 

But Stuckey said the stations must be set at the front of the parking lot to attract people’s attention to the advertisements as they enter the store. The charging stations “will drive commerce,” he said. 

Cohn, who has worked in the environmental field and was an environmental advisor to President Barack Obama’s first presidential transition team, suggested other ways to attract more EV charging stations to Westport.  Westporters could donate individual charging stations, or even have charging stations trigger pop-up ads on their phones as shoppers pass by, instead of promoting ads on “a massive screen,” he said.

“People might come off of I-95 just to have a charger that isn’t a Tesla charger,” Cohn said. “This is not the kind of EV chargers I would like to see in Westport. They change the look of the town.”

Volta called unresponsive to inquiries

The discussion of the Volta plan started with Mary Young, the planning and zoning director, telling the board that Volta did not respond to a letter she sent to the company expressing concerns about the plan.

Young had asked if the company had checked out the regulations for the grocery store parking lot — did Volta know if it needs variances to install the chargers? Also, had the business studied if there are enough surplus parking spaces in the lot to take away spaces to install the chargers? 

The town’s zoning regulations “are out of date,” because EV charging stations are not currently regulated, she told the commission. 

Lastly, Young wanted to know if the company had installed its chargers in other Connecticut communities.

Westport, also “not Hoboken”

When Stuckey said the company had installed chargers in Torrington and Hoboken, N.J., P&Z Chairwoman Danielle Dobin took offense.

“Westport is not Hoboken. We have nothing in common with Hoboken,” she said. “I don’t think it is the right fit here … Your design is gorgeous for lots of other places like malls … the only place it would be appropriate here would be the train station.” 

According to Volta’s website, the company also has nearby charging stations in Fairfield, Ridgefield and Norwalk.