Bob Andrews
I think Dorrie is on target here. When small, relatively affordable houses are replaced by huge, expensive ones, we are making Concord a less desirable and affordable place to live. This is a destructive trend that should not be allowed to continue if we mean what we say when we talk about meeting human needs in a fair and equitable way. A sustainable town is one that adequately houses old and young, rich and poor.

Tanya Gailus
The Long Range Plan Committee should please post soon the plan drafts that its own chairs provided towards the final document, as well as committee member edits to these. This circulation of these materials among committee members was carried out outside of open meetings (per chairs' described plan on Feb.23), via using consultant as an intermediary, which is very likely still against the Open Meeting Law. It is also simply ethical for the public to know what the CLRPC itself recommended, given all the private interviews and meetings consultant had with select developers and business interests. Authenticity is one thing, secrecy and opacity is another. The Attorney General recently found that the CLRPC had violated the Open Meeting Law during survey preparation. http://www.oml.ago.state.ma.us It is also ironic that this webpage service, coUrbanize, boasts (rightly) in its publicity that contributors have accountability because we sign in with our names and emails, whereas the consultant boasted (Sept 8, 2017) the utmost privacy they provide to the developers they interviewed.

Tanya Gailus
Preserving Neighborhood Trees: I have been looking over the current drafts for vision for concord, opportunities, and the element of preserving trees and nature "within neighborhoods" is missing. The physical and mental health value of having trees within one's neighborhood should not be underestimated. Natural conservation should not be limited only to designated parcels of interest.

Bill Montague
Small one family homes. On a heated slab foundation, with a deep two car garage for storage, right off the kitchen, to make it easy to shop and bring your groceries in. Then the kitchen would be large family room with dinning table in the same room Perhaps with a fireplace for warmth and comfort. One bathroom. Perhaps 3 bedrooms. One can be used as an office if you like. Newley weds would be able to afford it. It could easily support 2 children. When we get older we could move into such a nice comfortable small home, with neighbors like us. No steps to fall on hence no basement. The fireplace needs a cold air inlet as the smoke filled air goes up the chimney it needs outside air to enter. The clean out door in the bottom of the fire place to have cold air come in. The hearth needs to be at least 12 -16" high so the clean out ceramic liner for the clean out can be accessed from he outside. You could have an ash pit or ash barrel for the ashes. You will find the fire place in winter to be just "The most tolerable third party ", Henry David Thoreau. Concord is the Farmland of the Soul, plant yourself hear, then watch yourself grown, like Emerson and Thoreau. Bill Montague

Tanya Gailus
Changing zoning to allow for more density, especially in 0.5 acre lots, as CivicMoxie is recommending in its opportunity scenarios, is not a good idea. The opposition to mansions being built on small lots is because this results in tree loss and change of "town character.". Increasing density in 0.5 acre lots will result in even more tree loss. Moreover, in the survey, Question 15, the two options which were about increasing density received the lowest two rankings - despite the fact that one was obligated to rank every option, ie without being able to leave these blank. The public, as the survey shows, prefers to create affordable housing through existing structures and added in-law units, not zoning changes. People are urged to frequently check documents on the CLRPC's webpage at concordma.gov

Tanya Gailus
When we think of change happening "whether we want it or not," we should also remember that as chief consultant Ms. Silberberg mentioned during a CLRPC meeting, some of this change will be from outside sources, outside of Concord's control. This is precisely why we should avoid predicting what these outside effects might be and not presume in advance any *particular* kind of change. As such, all envisioned implementation proposals that are of a predictive nature should be accompanied by the qualification "if it becomes necessary." This applies to zoning change suggestions, for example, and to other issues as well - though not, for example, to improved intra-town transportation, which is a *current* popular item. Meanwhile, I appreciate that Mr. Kleiman included tree preservation as a desirable condition in land use policy recommendations. Thank you.

Yes, all the affordable ranch houses are being replaced by almost identical looking mini-McMansions that are 3-6 times the square footage. As a result affordable housing is disappearing and our carbon footprint & energy demand/consumption are skyrocketing. My neighborhood (Elsinore Street) has completely transformed in the last 3 years and soon there will be no ranch houses left.

Judy Hill
Zoning regulations and setbacks from rivers and ponds are there for a purpose. It's always disappointing to see builders applying for exceptions, particularly for their projects near rivers and within buffer zones. Then to see those exceptions allowed by Planning and/or ZBA.

Jeffrey Kerr
Concord has allowed developers to have their way with the town. Unlike other towns in the Western suburbs, Concord has been slow to build protective regulations and reluctant to enforce the rules it makes. A quick glance at the Concord Journal, basically an advertising arm of the real estate companies, gives a useful snapshot of the many ways the town is being mined. It would not take that much to create neighborhood friendly requirements that both allow for new building and preserve the aesthetics of the town. Its not a good thing that Concord is being filled in by the same three huge Colonials over and over and over.

Tanya Gailus
Wildlife preservation has not been specifically covered by the committee so far. A similar view is in Mr. Richard Forman's letter posted by the Town earlier on this site, on November 22. https://res.cloudinary.com/courbanize-production/image/upload/v1/information_plans/etk3arqhxtp8j8ulso35
Mr. Forman states, in his third paragraph:
. "Protect land so that key native species can readily move across town. The rich protected lands of Concord are fundamental resources providing enviable water, wildlife, and walking. A few large areas such as Estabrook Woods support an array of forest-interior species scarce elsewhere, and thus of high importance. But, as a Google Earth image makes clear, Concord’s land is fragmented by buildings,
roads and other features. To survive or thrive, animals “need to” move. Think of amphibians/reptiles moving along soil. Establishing, and protecting, spatial patterns across our town that provide connectivity for wildlife in different directions is critical to maintaining valuable biodiversity in the face of both climate change and ongoing urbanization."

mark gailus
Let the Long Range Plan specifically include a goal of preserving nature in residential areas. The benefits of nature need not be restricted to "conservation lands." Neighborhoods with mature tree canopies and mini-meadows provide wildlife corridors and habitat, benefits to human health, and nature instruction to those who pay attention. They multiply the benefits of adjacent conservation lands. Make it a goal to support pollinator and bird friendly native plantings, and to reduce general pesticide use and avoid lawn care methods that require gasoline powered equipment, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers. All great for "Town Character" and "Sustainability."