Electric scooters are ‘exciting,’ but will they ever come to Columbus? Here’s the latest.

You’re not likely to see electric scooters on the streets of uptown any time soon as Columbus Council voted 9-1 Tuesday night to extend a ban on the devices through August 4.

The vote extends a moratorium on any shared electric scooters within the city, except for those permitted by council’s authorization to operate a trial period.

The temporary ban means no scooter business can obtain a business license to operate in the city. It was put in place in July after scooter rental company Lime proposed placing 300 scooters in the uptown area for a period of 90 days.

The trial period never materialized, and Lime recently became one of several scooter companies to pull its devices from the streets of Atlanta, citing high impound fees and strict regulations on the devices, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It’s a lack of regulation that led to Columbus Council’s action: during a January 14 meeting, City Attorney Clifton Fay said that extending the moratorium will give the city time to see if any state-wide action governing electric scooter businesses is taken during the Georgia General Assembly’s current session.

City Manager Isaiah Hugley said at that meeting that the ban on scooters is proactive due to the city’s lack of laws related to the operations of the devices.

“We don’t want someone to come in and just set up shop and we have no control, no rules, and we are helpless,” Hugley said. “We need to put something in place to say ‘not right now’ as we continue to look, study, wait to see what’s going to come out of the state legislature.”

District 5 Councilor Charmaine Crabb said that she had recently visited Dallas, Texas, and rode a scooter two miles between two destinations.

“They’re fun, they’re exciting, but I do see where it’s important for us to get in front of this and have a plan so that it’s done properly,” she said.

District 7 Councilor Mimi Woodson cast the sole vote against the motion. Uptown lies within her district.

Other business covered during Council included:

• Council approved a resolution authorizing the Sunday sale of alcohol at on-premises locations for February 2, or Super Bowl Sunday. The council is allowed to authorize Sunday sales for one day each year, and this year Super Bowl Sunday was requested.
• Council held a first reading for a rezoning request from Neighborworks Columbus for a parcel on Leslie Drive. The plan is to build 33 affordable single family homes and 67 town homes on the 38 acres.
• Council heard from citizen Mary King who requested information on the pool at Shirley B. Winston Park, which was closed last year for the second summer in a row. Hugley said the city is looking through surveys from citizens on how they would want potential SPLOST funds spent, and said pools have been a popular response. He also said it is challenging to justify the cost of the pools when they are only used six to eight weeks out of the year.
  
  
• Council heard from citizen Sharon Bunn, who had issues with Columbus Water Works’ new charges based on meter size. Mayor Skip Henderson said he would ask a Columbus Water Works representative to attend a future meeting to discuss the changes.