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Town engineers win approval for Walden Street sidewalk despite limited wetland buffer impacts
Summary
The Natural Resources Commission approved the Walden Street sidewalk project after the town’s engineers documented and minimized permanent and temporary wetland-buffer impacts, agreed to avoid a culvert extension, and accepted a request to replace one key tree removed during construction.
Town of Concord engineering consultants returned to the Natural Resources Commission with revised plans for the Walden Street sidewalk project and the commission voted to accept the Notice of Intent after staff and commissioners discussed impacts and mitigation.
Scott Murphy, the project lead, summarized revised impact tables showing permanent increases in impervious surface within the 0–25 ft buffer (834 square feet across three locations) and additional impervious-area increases in the 25–50 ft and 50–100 ft zones. Murphy said the team avoided a more impactful culvert extension by narrowing lane widths and relocating a guardrail. He noted two trees would be removed in the 25-foot buffer, including an American elm roughly 16 inches in diameter and at least one dead tree.
Commissioners pressed the applicant on tree replacement and the location of a proposed bio-retention area; several commissioners urged replacement of at least one healthy elm with a specimen consistent with municipal plantings. Staff indicated they would work with the applicant on the final location and species and that a preconstruction site visit and erosion controls would be required.
The commission moved, seconded and approved the Notice of Intent with standard findings and the listed special conditions. The commission’s vote included the requirement that at least one removed healthy tree be replaced and that staff finalize construction sequencing, erosion controls, and tree-replacement details as part of the project order.
The chair asked staff to ensure conditions relating to parking, school-proximate siting of a bio-retention area, and public-access implications are resolved prior to preconstruction sign-off.
