Concord NRC Names Attawan Road Parcel Wheeler Field, Approves Wetland Violation Remedy

Other Committee · Meeting of April 1, 2026

CARLISLE — Concord's Natural Resources Commission unanimously named a 3.3-acre Attawan Road conservation parcel "Wheeler Field" and approved a remediation plan for a wetland buffer violation at 148-154 Fitchburg Turnpike. Chair Sarah Grunewald presided over 16 unanimous votes at the April 1 hybrid meeting. The Fitchburg Turnpike plan, presented by attorney David Fisher and landscape architect Dave Fisher of the Fisher Design Group alongside Daniel Carr of Stamps and McNary, requires removal of fill measured up to 28 inches deep across 12 soil borings, replanting with native species, installation of a split-rail-and-boulder barrier along the 50-foot buffer, and biannual monitoring reports for two years.

The Wheeler Field naming, supported by neighbor Adam Wensley and backed by a research report from Ann Clifford, honors Berkley Wheeler and Vernon Hitchens, whose 1946 donation to the town specified the parcel be "kept as a park." The commission also approved a minor modification for the Novo Riverside Commons development at 300 Baker Avenue — where buildings shifted up to 1.6 feet closer to an on-site pond during design refinement — finding no new wetland resource area impacts.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of April 1, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.