Concord Town Meeting Passes Student-Led Composting Feasibility Petition Over Select Board Objection

CARLISLE -- April 29, 2026, Concord town meeting closes 2026 session by passing student composting petition over Select Board opposition. The three-night Annual Town Meeting wrapped up Wednesday with voters approving 205 to 35 a petition from the Concord-Carlisle High School Sunrise Movement Club directing the Select Board to ask the town manager to investigate and report on the feasibility of a town-wide opt-in ratepayer composting program. The Select Board had voted three to two before the meeting to recommend no action and offered a substitute motion, limited to negotiating lower private rates and supporting student awareness efforts, which failed before the original came to a vote. Climate Action Committee Chair Brad Dye told the meeting that "the Select Board has failed to lift a finger" to meet the town's own 30 percent solid waste diversion target, a goal set in the town's Climate Action and Resilience Plan for 2025 that the committee said saw almost no progress. Separately, a Planning Board zoning amendment replacing an arbitrary 50 percent joint parking cap with a mandatory hour-by-hour demand analysis passed 232 to 42, and the meeting unanimously approved a $991,421 Stormwater Enterprise Fund appropriation for fiscal year 2027.