Columbia Association Asks Police Not to Enforce ICEing Law

Recently, the Columbia Association took down the “EV PARKING ONLY” signs at their five EV charging stations in Howard County, MD. [See: Signs Removed to Prevent Enforcement of Anti-ICEing Law] The staff said that they didn’t want people to get tickets after a law was passed to clarify enforcement at charging stations on private parking facilities in the county.

Taking down the signs was a surprise and contradicted the Columbia Association’s earlier position that the “EV PARKING ONLY” signs were posted only because Howard County had a law that the Council passed in July, 2014. [See: Anti-ICEing Bill Passed in Howard County]

I attended the March 24, 2016 Columbia Association Board Meeting and “resident speak out” session to bring the matter to the attention of the CA President/CEO Milton Matthews and Board Members to seek a resolution. Here is audio from that session:

Audio: @Lanny speaks to Columbia Association Board of Directors about EV Parking Signs.

At about the 3:50 mark, CA President Milton Matthews says the signs have been put back up, however they have reached out to the Howard County Police Department and told them that if a non-electric vehicle parks there, they (CA) does not want them ticketed or towed. This of course goes against the spirit of the anti-ICEing law that Columbia Association said they wanted and that the EV community and local lawmakers led by Jen Terrasa and Calvin Ball spent several years getting passed.

It doesn’t make sense to wait until there is an enforceable regulation to put up signs that reserve the spots for EVs and then to take the signs down or ask the police to not enforce the hard-won law.

The Columbia Association President told me to check back in about a month and he will tell me where they stand at that time.