The Concord School District is pushing back against a proposal for a gas station and convenience store to operate across the street from Concord High School.

At a meeting Wednesday, school board members decided unanimously to appeal a decision made by the Concord Planning Board in February to approve a conditional use permit for Nouria Energy Corporation to open a gas station and convenience store on the corner of Pleasant and Warren Streets, across from Concord High. The property, which is owned by ArckTej Realty, formerly housed a Gulf gas station and convenience store which closed in 2020.

School District officials have concerns that the gas station would increase traffic on the streets around Concord High and pose a safety risk to students.

“I know students go back and forth across there all the time and would be more tempted to do so when it’s open,” School Board Member Bob Cotton said at a meeting Monday.

Concord High currently has a “closed campus” policy, meaning students are required to stay on school grounds during the school day, but arrival and dismissal times for both Concord High and the Concord Regional Technical Center make for increased pedestrian traffic at certain times of the day. 

Two crosswalks on Warren Street connect the Concord High School property to the sidewalk on the other side, including one a few yards down from the gas station property.

City Planner Heather Shank and city engineering staff expressed concerns about the proposal at the Planning Board’s Feb. 15 meeting, due to the vehicle-intensive nature of the project which is destined for a small triangular plot of land on an already-busy corner. Several community members have voiced concerns about student safety at both the planning board meeting and this week’s school board meeting.

“I am very concerned that the city’s planning and engineering staff recommended against this and the planning board moved forward,” School Board member Pamela Walsh said Monday.

There is already an Irving gas station and Circle K convenience store across from Concord High, situated on a different corner of the same intersection.

The School Board plans to file its appeal by March 17.

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