Electric vehicles are still relatively rare on suburban roads, but some say Park Ridge should lead the charge to get ready for them.

Tim Milburn, a Park Ridge resident and adviser to the renewable energy consulting firm Green Way Energy, recently urged aldermen to start thinking about how the near-northwest suburban city could install public charging stations for electric vehicles.

Doing so would not only put Park Ridge on the cutting edge of green energy, but would, over time, make money for sagging municipal coffers, he said.

Meeting as the city council's informal committee-of-the-whole, aldermen agreed to discuss the idea at a future committee meeting. But some questioned whether the charging stations are yet necessary.

Why should the city "discriminate against 97 percent of drivers in favor of only 3 percent of drivers?" Ald. Jim Smith asked.

Milburn replied that there are few electric vehicles today, but there will be many, many more on the road in coming years, he said.

While EV charging stations have appeared in Des Plaines, Elgin, Evanston, Franklin Park, Glen Ellyn, Northbrook and Wheeling, the question of licensing and regulating them "really hasn't risen to our" awareness yet, said Mark Fowler, executive director of the Northwest Municipal Conference, which represents about 50 communities in the north and northwest suburbs.

"It's not something that's been discussed at our board meetings or our legislative meetings," he said.

Among questions Milburn said Park Ridge should consider:

Whether to provide free electricity or charge for it — or begin with free service and introduce fees later. As for billing, options include fees based on time spent at the station, kilowatt hours used, or a combination.

Regulating the use of EV charging stations, which are typically placed in a parking space or two and marked for EV charging only.

Cost. Installing two EV charging stations would vary between $14,000 and $19,000, if the city were to use a Green Way vendor, Milburn said, adding there are other vendors in the market.

Milburn suggested the city could "piggyback" on its already-planned lighting project on Summit Avenue to place EV chargers near the southeast corner of Summit and Prospect Avenue.

Other logical locations for EV chargers, he said, include parking lots at the Park Ridge Public Library and along Euclid Avenue, the municipal underground garage, South Park, or even City Hall and the Public Works Department, if the city invests in electric vehicles for its own fleet.

The EV charging stations nearest Park Ridge are the Walgreen's at Canfield Avenue and Higgins Road in Chicago; 999 E. Touhy Ave., and The Rivers casino in Des Plaines; the Des Plaines Oasis on the Jane Addams Tollway; and the Golf Mill Shopping Center in Niles.