Councilmembers Laura Perkins Cox (District 2) and John Willis (District 5) brought this idea to City Manager Bill Dollar in 2009, after seeing a similar ECV station in tiny Hico TX.
An electric-vehicle charging station seemed like a logical addition to already-underway green efforts in Garland. Garland has a municipally-owned electric utility, and could therefore refuel electric cars for free from our own utility (while gaining some good publicity for the City).
The City Manager agreed to study the idea. If it met the city's sustainability goals, staff would create a project to install some ECVs in downtown. That project proposal would then come back to the City Council for their approval. That's the Council-Manager form of government in action (two words)!
At about the same time, the federal government was working on new Clean Air grants that would encourage cities in EPA non-attainment areas for ozone pollution (like the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex) to replace traditional city vehicles with low-to-no emission electric vehicles.
In 2011, as part of the Garland Goes Green program, these ideas all came together: The Garland City Manager proposed using the federal Clean Air grants to replace several gasoline-powered older city vehicles with 3 Chevy Volts, and installing 3 electric vehicle charging stations at city facilities around Garland.
The Council approved accepting the grants for the Volts, installng the charging stations. The council and further decided to open the City charging stations to the general public, who could charge their electric vehicles for up to 4 hours for free.
The first public charging station was installed downtown at Garland City Hall in Nov 2011. The station is conveniently located nearest the 4 parking spaces the City Manager designated for electric vehicle use only at City Hall, but can also be accessed from Austin Street that runs adjacent to the parking lot.
The City Hall charging station is available 24/7/365. Check our GP&L's Chevy Volt when you come.
From the City of Garland website: (
visit link)
"Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure
An agreement has been signed with Ecotality, Inc. for the deployment of four electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) units to go along with the acquisition of four plug in hybrid electric General Motors Volt's. The EVSE’s are provided through a grant and have been installed at City Hall, Main Street Municipal Building (MSMB) and Environmental Health office.
All charging units will feature maximum four hour charging limits through 240 volt service and provide detail reports to assist Garland and Ecotality staff with planning future deployments across the city.
A phase 2 grant project planned for 2012 will expand the deployment to a total of 25 units citywide. Visit (
visit link) to locate a charging supply station near you. Contact David Jacobs at 972-205-2490 for additional details" [end]
EDIT 2020 -- These charging stations were removed when City hall was renovated and new apartments were built on the old parking lot. There are still ECV stations in downtown Garland - We will have to go find a new one!