APPENDIX V

Concord Long Range Plan, rev. Feb.5, 2004

Road Group

 

There is a consistent, overarching, and strongly stated goal that runs through all previous planning efforts  —  to maintain the historic, scenic and aesthetic values and character of the Town and Town’s roads, while ensuring public safety and meeting transportation efficiency needs. However there is a need for a more clearly articulated vision of what Concord’s roads and public ways should actually look like, and how this is to be achieved and controlled. To this end, the following are suggested as means to ensure that the intent of the town is realized.

 

We ask that the Board of Selectmen officially adopt the1994 Roads Policy with the following additions and that the CPW and Planning Board implement the Policy and additions.

                                                                                                                             

1)      Keep roads and sidewalks at minimal widths consistent with demonstrated, documented town of Concord safety requirements.

2)      Provide for prior public involvement before any new roadway and/or sidewalk construction or modification, such as road widening, road paving, guardrails, curbing, shoulders, planting, lighting, signage and/or impact on stone walls.

3)      No curbing should be the preferred treatment wherever possible. If curbing is necessary, sloped curbing and or lower profile asphalt edging is preferable. Used curbing is best since it has a gentler appearance. Limit vertical granite curbing to critical areas in center of town or to separate pavement from wet lands.. Cape Cod berms and gravel verges are not consistent with the historic, scenic vistas of this Town and should not be used.

4)      Throughout town preserve soft shoulders wherever possible. Use grass, wildflowers and trees to enhance adjacent landscape features.

5)      Limit road lighting outside the Town centers, as all cars have headlights.

6)      Limit road striping and signage to the minimum visual impact needed for safety.

7)      Use 4-way stops instead of lights to regulate traffic and reduce speeding unless otherwise warranted.

8)      Include a member on the Public Works Commission with training in landscape

design or with preservation background/experience.    .  

      9)Review subdivision and other zoning requirements to identify inconsistencies with

           the above and to recommend changes as appropriate.

 

 

*See attached for summary of these planning efforts

 

 

 

 

* Planning History/context:

 

Concord is an extraordinarily attractive town with a strong sense of place and of history. Today it is still elegant in its simplicity and almost universal in its appeal.  Town-wide, property values and commercial enterprise benefit from the remarkable character of the town.  However, Concord is challenged by constant, rapid and potentially detrimental changes and demands.  Its current attractiveness can be easily and inadvertently lost.  The town’s roadways contribute greatly to this appeal but there is also the potential for road treatments to greatly detract from the attractiveness, functionality and safety of the town.  They remain typically simple and often more narrow than what modern, standardized suburban developments “require”.. they are ‘in scale’ with their surroundings and they ‘fit’ gently with the landscape.  Roadways, which often date back generations and are frequently historic, are gently rolling and more curving than strictly laid out modern roads.  There is more individual character and less of a ‘cookie cutter’ look to our roads and they are evocative of a slower moving, more relaxed and bucolic time and place. Almost everywhere grand and ancient sugar maples, sycamores and occasionally elms grace the roadsides, shade the roads and adjacent sidewalks and pathways.  This is a quintessential New England town.

 

The Town of Concord has a long and firmly established tradition of proactive citizen involvement in the full range of issues facing a traditional New England town. Virtually every aspect of town life falls under the watchful gaze of an informed and active populace: from town planning, to historic preservation, to light, power and sewers, to open space.  The town’s roads and transportation policies have been no exception.

 

·        In 1987 the Long Range Plan stated that “ Concord’s rural roads are important to the Town’s special historic character.  Roadway and sidewalk construction and repair policies of the CPW, the Planning Board, the NRC, and the Board of Appeals should protect and enhance the scenic qualities of Concord’s roadways. Decisions about safety improvements, road widening and alignment, signalization, parking, sidewalk design, tree and shrub planting, and mowing practices should balance speed, capacity, convenience, and safety with historic qualities. Where possible, sidewalks should be separated from the roadway by berms and planting, so as to avoid a visual widening of the road, and provide a more attractive path for pedestrians.” The 1987 LRP goes on to recommend passage of a Scenic Roads Bylaw (General Laws Chapter 40, Sec.15C); and in the last paragraph suggests that “the following local roads be considered for designation as ‘Scenic Roads’: Garfield Road, Barrett’s Mill Road, Estabrook Road, Monument St., Liberty St., Sudbury Road (south of Route 2) and ORNAC (south of Route 2).” [1987 LRP, pp. 6-4,5]

 

·        In 1994, a citizen’s committee (the Roads Management Advisory Committee), completed a draft “Policy and Process” covering the many facets of road/transportation management in Town.  Their policy statement was:  “In the reconstruction or construction of roads, the Town of Concord seeks to maintain those aspects of the existing environment which enhance the historic, scenic, and agricultural properties of the roadway, consistent with public safety.”  In 1995 the BOS voted to accept with thanks the Committee’s report and take under advisement their recommendations. Follow-through actions by various parties seem to have been lost.  The proposed process was not adopted.

 

·        In 2000, a citizen’s committee (the Transportation Plan Committee) put forth a central goal “To protect the quality of life of our residents and to provide for their safety in keeping with the open, rural and historic character of the town.”  In addition, the Committee recommended the BOS oversee the revision of the charge of each relevant Committee and Department in Town (including itself) to incorporate goals, objectives and reporting mechanisms in this area.  These goals and recommended processes are being incorporated into the LRP.