Dozens Expected To Testify Against Northwest Bypass-Langley Parkway 3

CONCORD, NH — During the next two weeks, Concord residents will be able to sound off about the fiscal year 2023 city budget, which includes a 4.8 percent property tax rate increase, and concerns about a controversial roadway extension, many years in the making.

On Tuesday, councilors eyeing City Manager Tom Aspell’s budget will review community development, leisure services, human services, and capital improvement programs. In the capital improvement program, there are funds for engineering services for the third leg of Langley Parkway, also known historically as the Northwest Bypass. The proposal seeks to create a new road from the Concord Hospital medical complex on Pleasant Street to North State Street to alleviate traffic from Centre and Pleasant streets. Both the hospital and the city acquired dozens of acres of property for the roadway across many years.

The proposal has also languished but has not been removed from the CIP despite assertions from many city councilors that it will never be built.

New life was breathed into the project a number of years ago when the city petitioned the federal government for a TIGER grant to build the roadway. Instead, money was budgeted for a scaled-back Downtown Concord Main Streets project.

But the project — or fear of it being constructed, was revived again recently.

Aspell mentioned Langley Parkway at a recent Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce luncheon about the state of the city and possible new housing that could be built at 1 Granite Place, the former Lincoln Financial buildings, now owned by Brady Sullivan and Steve Duprey. More than 100 acres of the property are zoned residential. The state has also budgeted millions of dollars in this year’s budget to begin the process of building a parking garage on Capitol Street. This change will require the Department of Justice to be moved and 1 Granite Place is being eyed as a place to house the attorney general’s office employees.

The mention by Aspell has activated a number of residents to begin organizing to stop the third leg of Langley Parkway including a new volunteer group called the Concord Greenspace Coalition.

Meredith Cooley, who lives in the neighborhood and is a member of the org, said about 600 people have signed a petition opposing Phase 3 of the parkway. They have about 750 subscribers and thousands of people have visited the site since it went live six weeks ago.

“Based on the incredible early response to the website, it is evident that Concord residents value green spaces as essential to the fabric of our community,” she said.

Cooley said she expects dozens of residents to testify on Thursday — with many more contacting councilors requesting to have the road removed from the CIP. The public has a second chance to speak about any budget concerns on June 9.

“The community response to this issue has been overwhelming,” she said. “It's clear that many in Concord feel the Parkway plan is outdated, too expensive, and destroys habitat, and a community resource that is valued by so many.”

The roadway is considered controversial since it disrupts the homes of dozens of residents with dead ends or roundabouts requiring them to circle around other streets to leave their homes for other parts of the city, according to prior designs. Some have called it a $20 million driveway for the medical complex.

If built, the roadway will also not allow building off it due to set-asides and prior agreements from sales — meaning a number of landowners that have possession of acres of land will never be able to develop those parcels. Those parcels amount to about 36 acres of buildable land for homes with access to water and sewer.

Another parcel, owned by Capital Region Health Care, the hospital’s parent company, is 24 acres. Part of the parcel is set aside for the potential roadway. But the northeast and southwest sides of the parcel abut eight mansions on Ridgewood Lane and could easily be developed with at least a dozen or more homes in a city with almost no housing inventory available.

A decision about the project is also holding up two parcels in the neighborhood that could be ripe for property tax expansion — the former Santander Bank site and an empty lot owned by Irving which had plans rejected for a new gas station, both on North State Street.

The last time an attempt was made to remove Langley Parkway Phase 3 from the CIP was in 2005, when former councilors Jeff Bart, the late Liz Blanchard, and the late Katherine Rogers, all ward councilors at the time, voted to remove it.

Budget Hearings

• 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 2, in the city council chambers: Community development, leisure services, human services, and capital improvement programs.
• 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 6, in the city council chambers: Special revenue funds (inspection, parking, airport, golf, arena, solid waste), enterprise funds (water, wastewater).
• 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 9, in the city council chambers: Work session, public hearings, public hearing action (budget adoption).

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