In the face of opposition, BlueIndy ready to roll

• Homeowners say they weren't notified about charging stations
• It's like having Hertz outside your front door, one resident says

Sean McCarthy is just the type of millennial Mayor Greg Ballard wants living here.

He's 25, works in marketing Downtown and bought a house in Fall Creek Place. According to the city's blueprint for the future, McCarthy should be clamoring for alternative modes of transportation, such as bikes, buses, Uber and electric cars.

But he's not.

Instead, he's fighting one of the mayor's prized programs, the BlueIndy electric car share, frustrated that a charging station is outside his front door.

"They just showed up one day tearing up my front yard and put these chargers in," McCarthy said. "I feel like these cars, parked there all day, are going to devalue my property. I put a lot of money into this house."

Despite the protests of McCarthy and other residents, businesses and City-County Council members, Ballard and BlueIndy will roll out the controversial electric car rental service during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Downtown on Wednesday.

Among the speakers at 11 a.m. will be Cédric Bolloré, of the Bolloré Group, a French conglomerate that owns BlueIndy and larger car-share operations in Paris and London.

The Indianapolis venture is the first of its kind in the United States. BlueIndy eventually wants 500 cars at 200 charging stations. Most of the first 26 self-service stations opening Wednesday are in Center Township.

The program has been 16 months in the making and dogged by criticism, much of it from council members who contend the city is illegally ceding right of way to the private company and inappropriately subsidizing the operation with $6 million in city funds.

But most of the recent complaints have bubbled from the neighborhoods as work crews — without warning — began digging trenches on prime parking spots to make room for electric cables, chargers and kiosks. Each of the stations has five spots reserved for the compact, four-seat plug-ins.

Chas Navarra, a 60-year-old health care worker, was alarmed when a station went up near his home in the Old Northside neighborhood at 13th and Alabama streets.

"I live in a historic neighborhood, and I've got a rental car business in front of my house," he said. "What's the difference between having this and Hertz or Avis parked out there? How is this going to be good for my (property) valuation?"

Navarra has organized a petition drive on Facebook called "Stop BlueIndy NOW" with 32 likes, and he has contacted council members Joe Simpson, Zach Adamson and Christine Scales, all critics of the way the city has implemented the program.

Navarra said he was never told the chargers would be built on his block and was shocked by the size of the operation.

"When it smacks you on the forehead like that, it's really something," he said. "Do we even know if these chargers are safe or if children should be playing around them?"

Ruth Hayes, president of the Nora-Northside Community Council on the Far Northside, said no one from the city or company has contacted her, though one station is planned for 86th Street and the Monon Trail.

That station isn't among the first wave to open Wednesday, but if and when it does get built, and it is in the right of way, Hayes said, she'll opose it.

"I think it is absurd to allow a private company to use the public way," Hayes said. "But that's my personal opinion. Our council has not taken a stand yet but will take a stand if they do that."

City officials said the car share is given curb space the same way a bus stop, parking valet service or hotdog vendor is. Council members assert that such an infrastructure intrusion requires stricter review, and they are seeking a franchise agreement, much like a utility needs in many cities.

BlueIndy President Herve Muller said the planned stations have been listed on the company's website since the deal was signed.

The company also has solicited suggestions for locations and received thousands of responses. He said BlueIndy has been in touch with 40 of the city's neighborhood liaisons and has met with some community groups.

"We have had a number of engagements with business owners and try to be mindful of them and homeowners," he said.

The locations were selected based on residential densities, where people work, college locations and busy transit routes.

Muller said very few stations are in front of single-family homes and he doesn't expect to do much different for advance notification when ground is broken on the rest of the stations.

"But I'd take anything under advisement," Muller said.

Users can buy yearly, monthly, weekly or daily memberships and check out cars at any station. The rental fees are $5 for 20 minutes for yearly members, higher for the others.

BlueIndy said it has sold 1,000 memberships already.

Hailey Rose, 18, a freshman at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, bought a yearly pass.

She said when she went to live on campus, she realized she didn't need her car every day and stopped using it. Rose said she and her friends will use BlueIndy cars to go to dinner, shows and museums on weekends.

"I think it will be helpful getting us around Downtown," she said, predicting that the service would be popular with students.

"My generation is into green technology and will be very interested in this," she said.

But McCarthy, the millennial with the station in front of his house, isn't one of them.

"I drive my car to work Downtown," he said. "It's only three miles, but we have a parking garage, and traffic isn't bad at all.

"I just don't think Indianapolis is at that point where we have to find all kinds of other ways to get to work. It might make sense in a larger city but not here, yet."

Call Star reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418. Follow him on Twitter: @john_tuohy.