How to help preserve town planning in Concord

Obviously there are pressures persuading the county to go against its constituents in Concord as it pushes development here. If we as Concord residents want a more democratic say about land use in our community, the town plan is the key tool. So we need to put pressure (legal and otherwise) on the county to change back to following our town plan. There are several ways to do this:

Contact county supervisors. (They have the last say on what the county does. They can vote against the county staff's recommendations.) Concord's supervisors are Jeff Johns, for the west side of Concord, and Mark Groose, for the east side. It would be good to contact other supervisors as well to let them know that county citizens are concerned. It might also be helpful to have a polite conversation with the county administrator (Ben Wehmeier) and/or the county attorney(Blair Ward) as to why they have advised the supervisors against following the wishes of most Concord residents on land use in Concord. County Directory

Talk to other people in the county. Supposedly the county will treat all towns equally, which means other towns’ plans will be ignored as well. Why should towns spend money on plans if they will not be followed?

Sign up to get emails or texts with updates and notifications about meetings. Beyond the current appeal, we need to convince the county that citizens care about this issue—that we are paying attention and will protest.

If you are able, please contribute funds.

The laws that say the county must follow town plans are very important to the quality of life for many people in Concord. For this reason we are challenging the the county’s decision to not follow the Farmland Preservation law in court. The lawsuit asks only that the county follow the law, which says it must follow the town and county plans when taking land out of farmland preservation.

The lawsuit has already been filed (on 10/14/2022), but pursuing the legal case is expensive. More details