Irvington Alerts
Mayor's Message - May 22, 2025: Update on EV Charger Installation
Mayor's Message - May 22, 2026
Dear Neighbors,
After careful consideration of your feedback, along with a thorough review of our financing options and engineering constraints, the Village Board has decided not to proceed with EV charger installations at the East Sunnyside Avenue lot, the Ardsley-on-Hudson Train Station lot, and the Half Moon North location on South Buckhout Street in the Half Moon North Co-op development. Please note that EV chargers have been successfully installed at Scenic Hudson Park and are in the process of being installed at the Field Point Parking Lot at the intersection of Main Street and Broadway (Route 9). Additionally, chargers are slated to go in the Irvington Library parking lot and the O'Hara Nature Center.
This wasn't a simple or easy decision. We genuinely believe in expanding access to EV infrastructure, and we know that for some residents, particularly those in multi-family housing without private charging options, access matters greatly. The equity goals behind this project and the County grant program were real, and they remain important to us.
We are grateful for the time that many of you took to raise concerns not just about where these chargers were going, but about how the process unfolded. We agree that we should have communicated earlier, more directly, and more transparently, especially with residents closest to the proposed sites. That failure was ours, and I want to be direct about that. While it was unintentional, we acknowledge that we should have focused on community outreach and provided residents with more specific details about the overall project well ahead of its commencement.
It's also worth clearly explaining some of the constraints we were working within, because they shaped our options more than many residents may have realized. The grant funding behind this project required that chargers be installed exclusively in Village-owned parking spaces that are publicly accessible to all residents. Installing them in private parking lots, including the private parking spaces at Half Moon North, was never an option. Furthermore, the economics of this grant program are built around bulk installation, meaning that spreading chargers across many smaller sites would have significantly reduced cost-effectiveness and likely disqualified the project from full funding. In addition, every proposed location had to receive approval from multiple levels of government and from Con Edison, our utility provider, each of which had its own technical and regulatory requirements. These weren't constraints we chose; they were the framework the grant funding came with.
When we looked at the full picture, including the community opposition, the siting concerns, the funding constraints that would have shifted prohibitive costs to taxpayers if we modified or relocated the installations, and the uncertainty around future grant availability, it became clear that moving forward was not the right path at this time.
I want to be honest with you about the tradeoffs this decision carries. The County's current grant program round is closed, and we cannot guarantee that equivalent funding will be available in the future. That means EV charging access, particularly for residents who would not otherwise have EV charging near their homes, may be delayed or remain similarly cost-prohibitive to install in these locations. That weighs on me. Funding a future installation using only Village resources will be a genuine challenge given our budget constraints, and it will fall to current and future boards to weigh the real benefits of expanding EV access against our responsibility to manage Village funds carefully.
To everyone who wrote in, attended meetings, signed petitions, or simply took the time to share your perspective, thank you. Your feedback made a difference, and it is exactly the kind of engaged, caring participation that makes Irvington the community it is. Public discourse is a cornerstone of our democracy, and we welcome input. We are genuinely grateful.
We are also committed to doing better. Future infrastructure projects will involve earlier outreach, clearer communication, and real opportunities for residents to weigh in before decisions are made, not after. That is a standard we are committed to enacting.
We will continue to look for opportunities to expand EV access in Irvington in ways that are equitably sited, properly communicated, and shaped by meaningful community input from the start.
Sincerely,
Arlene Burgos
Mayor, Village of Irvington
Dear Neighbors,
After careful consideration of your feedback, along with a thorough review of our financing options and engineering constraints, the Village Board has decided not to proceed with EV charger installations at the East Sunnyside Avenue lot, the Ardsley-on-Hudson Train Station lot, and the Half Moon North location on South Buckhout Street in the Half Moon North Co-op development. Please note that EV chargers have been successfully installed at Scenic Hudson Park and are in the process of being installed at the Field Point Parking Lot at the intersection of Main Street and Broadway (Route 9). Additionally, chargers are slated to go in the Irvington Library parking lot and the O'Hara Nature Center.
This wasn't a simple or easy decision. We genuinely believe in expanding access to EV infrastructure, and we know that for some residents, particularly those in multi-family housing without private charging options, access matters greatly. The equity goals behind this project and the County grant program were real, and they remain important to us.
We are grateful for the time that many of you took to raise concerns not just about where these chargers were going, but about how the process unfolded. We agree that we should have communicated earlier, more directly, and more transparently, especially with residents closest to the proposed sites. That failure was ours, and I want to be direct about that. While it was unintentional, we acknowledge that we should have focused on community outreach and provided residents with more specific details about the overall project well ahead of its commencement.
It's also worth clearly explaining some of the constraints we were working within, because they shaped our options more than many residents may have realized. The grant funding behind this project required that chargers be installed exclusively in Village-owned parking spaces that are publicly accessible to all residents. Installing them in private parking lots, including the private parking spaces at Half Moon North, was never an option. Furthermore, the economics of this grant program are built around bulk installation, meaning that spreading chargers across many smaller sites would have significantly reduced cost-effectiveness and likely disqualified the project from full funding. In addition, every proposed location had to receive approval from multiple levels of government and from Con Edison, our utility provider, each of which had its own technical and regulatory requirements. These weren't constraints we chose; they were the framework the grant funding came with.
When we looked at the full picture, including the community opposition, the siting concerns, the funding constraints that would have shifted prohibitive costs to taxpayers if we modified or relocated the installations, and the uncertainty around future grant availability, it became clear that moving forward was not the right path at this time.
I want to be honest with you about the tradeoffs this decision carries. The County's current grant program round is closed, and we cannot guarantee that equivalent funding will be available in the future. That means EV charging access, particularly for residents who would not otherwise have EV charging near their homes, may be delayed or remain similarly cost-prohibitive to install in these locations. That weighs on me. Funding a future installation using only Village resources will be a genuine challenge given our budget constraints, and it will fall to current and future boards to weigh the real benefits of expanding EV access against our responsibility to manage Village funds carefully.
To everyone who wrote in, attended meetings, signed petitions, or simply took the time to share your perspective, thank you. Your feedback made a difference, and it is exactly the kind of engaged, caring participation that makes Irvington the community it is. Public discourse is a cornerstone of our democracy, and we welcome input. We are genuinely grateful.
We are also committed to doing better. Future infrastructure projects will involve earlier outreach, clearer communication, and real opportunities for residents to weigh in before decisions are made, not after. That is a standard we are committed to enacting.
We will continue to look for opportunities to expand EV access in Irvington in ways that are equitably sited, properly communicated, and shaped by meaningful community input from the start.
Sincerely,
Arlene Burgos
Mayor, Village of Irvington