Concord voters will have to choose between four candidates for the empty at-large city council position in Tuesday’s election.
Michael Dobrinski, David Sky, David Parker and Byron Champlin are all vying for the seat left open by Steve Shurtleff’s recent ascension to House Speaker.
Their strategies echo those used in statewide campaigns: Candidates have been out knocking on doors, placing signs, leaving mailers and holding house parties. Concord TV has had everyone come in for 30-second shorts, which are available online for curious viewers.
The candidates have tried to showcase how they best understand the city as a whole. With the Main Street revitalization project behind them, the talking points for the campaigns came from all corners of the city.
One of the main conversations has centered around potential development at the former Rivco site. Ever since the building’s owner made a request to the city council to change the site’s industrial zoning, residents in the area have been concerned about their way of life being affected.
Mentioned just as often are the needs of the Heights, and the not-so-far-away possibilities surrounding the Interstate 93 widening project.
They all generally agree that the city is going in the right direction, and feel the city’s attention to the downtown has paid off, although it may be time to focus on other parts of the city next.
They also agree the city’s tax rate is fair and provides quality services to the city, although it can be expensive. Candidates also maintained that Concord’s school district, whose budget determines a large chunk of the tax rate, does a good job and should remain autonomous.
But they differ on where the city should focus its development efforts next. Some say Storrs Street, with its immediate closeness to the downtown and its high visibility from the highway; others suggest an extension to Langley Parkway will improve residents’ lives best.
Whoever wins holds the seat only until November, when a full-term seat will be up for grabs.
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As a ward city councilor, Byron Champlin said he’s always tried to take a global view of Concord.
And after about six year in Ward 4, he’s ready to demonstrate it on a larger scale.
The current Ward 4 councilor is well-known around the city for his participation on various boards. He says that experience has given him a broad view of the city.
“From my perspective, we are all one city, we are all in this boat together,” he said. “That’s why I want this job; it’s what I think about when I make a decision.”
Champlin has always been a big supporter of the downtown project, and he isn’t shy about extolling its virtues.
“The reimagining of Main Street has been huge,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest contributors to our tax base, and we need to build and expand upon it.”
But he does find fault in how the city handled leasing its downtown garage spaces decades ago.
A few companies are currently in long-term leases with the city, some Champlin said have been “a huge disincentive to the public.”
“When someone drives by an empty space that has a company name of it, and all the other spaces are filled, that’s really frustrating to them,” he said.
Expanding the city’s success in downtown could mean focusing its attention on the Storrs Street development next. Champlin called the area “critical” in a recent mailer for expanding retail and commercial businesses, housing and mixed-use trails.
Like other candidates, Champlin sees big challenges in the city’s future surrounding Penacook and the Heights.
In Penacook, the challenge is to make the village vibrant, something it struggles with despite the city’s multi-million dollar investment in its infrastructure years ago.
There’s “a sense of abandonment” in the area, Champlin said, and the situation is complicated by the fact that many residents have differing views on what it would take to fix the issue.
But Champlin advocates for caution, especially around the potential development at the Rivco site, where he said specific development isn’t guaranteed once the zoning changes.
In the Heights, the challenge is to make the neighborhoods feel more as part of the city and to bring the old and new generations together. Champlin said the construction of the new community center is a big step towards that.
Champlin said he’s cognizant of how the city’s tax rate affects people, particularly those who are on fixed incomes, like himself.
But that concern has to be balanced with attracting and retaining qualified safety services personnel and paying a competitive wage, Champlin said.
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The youngest candidate in the running, Michael Dobrinski’s campaign is strongly focused on making the city more attractive for young people.
A resident of the Capital City since high school, he’s seen plenty of people his age grow up and move away from what he said was a perception of a lack of opportunities and a demonstrable struggle to find affordable housing.
He said the city laid some good groundwork by renovating the downtown, but that now might be the time to pivot to other areas of the city.
“We’ve seen their commitment to that over the last 5 to 10 years,” he said. “…But young people need to feel like they can start their careers here, not go looking elsewhere for other opportunities.”
To make that happen, Dobrinski said he would pursue creating partnerships between local businesses and colleges. The idea would be to create internships in Concord that give college students the chance to experience life in the Capital City and invest their skills here.
Dobrinski said he’s also paying close attention to the Interstate 93 expansion project, saying it’s critical for the city with the state on the project.
For instance, how it could affect the Storrs Street expansion project the city has been contemplating for years. “If it expands and grows in the right way, there could be three to four acres of development right off the bat,” he said. “That would be welcoming for a lot of businesses; after that, if more opens up, we could see what kind of multi-use options might be available.”
Dobrinski is also keen on the tensions around potential development at Rivco. He said he would support a housing option there if it wasn’t too disruptive to the neighborhood.
“If we can find a happy medium, I think that should be explored,” he said.
He would like to see the city take a more holistic approach to its homeless population and be more proactive in battling the opioid crisis.
That would mean getting more involved in the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness’s efforts to bring more low-barrier housing into the city, Dobrinski said.
And he said the city should be taking a more holistic approach in tackling substance abuse. Its current format, he said, is more reactive and focuses heavily on law enforcement.
Other top issues for Dobrinski include continuing to embrace the city’s refugee population and helping them assimilate into our community; finding new ways to implement clean or renewable energy around the city; and improving road conditions in areas outside of downtown, according to his Facebook page.
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David Parker doesn’t think Concord has changed much since he was born and raised here.
To him, that’s not a bad thing.
“I think it’s a very family-friendly city,” he said. “I think services, when you live over here, are readily accessible. It’s a beautiful town. I like the parks, the historic aspects, I like it’s proximity to Boston and skiing. It’s a nice place to live, but not as many of the urban pressures.”
Anyone who thinks it should be anything else is fooling themselves, Parker said. He’s not afraid to tell you that while Concord’s virtues could be enhanced, he doesn’t want it to turn into a destination.
“We don’t want to be Portsmouth where 80 percent of the people don’t live there. That gives you an unsettling feeling,” he said. “When I was in Lincoln, it went from a mill town to a tourist town and that’s fine, they’ve got a larger tax base, but it totally changed the culture.”
While Parker said he thinks the downtown project was important to slow traffic down and make it more walkable, he said residents have told him some of the changes haven’t made the downtown more accessible.
And he’s worried about whether certain businesses, like banks and investment firms, are the only ones able to survive in Concord’s downtown.
He’s also critical of the city’s land use boards decision to grant a variance to The Hotel Concord and allowing them to install a large, luminescent sign visible from the highway. He doesn’t have a problem with the sign itself but thinks it could set a bad precedent.
But downtown is just one of the “Three Cities” Parker sees within the community. He called Penacook and the Heights the other two cities and thinks the city should be paying more attention to them.
In the Heights, he said the viability of Steeplegate Mall will be a challenge for the city, especially when retail is struggling. He thinks the mall could easily be filled by a medical center or an athletic complex; perhaps half the parking could be replaced with green space.
“We need to see the mall – and the Heights – as an opportunity to flourish,” a recent campaign mailer read. “They – like every other community center – deserve high-quality services and leadership from our community.”
In Penacook, he said the possibility of new development at Rivco looms large. Beyond that, he said bringing other commercial opportunities to the Contoocook River could pay off, comparing it to Henniker’s riverside downtown.
Another area Parker wants to see further developed is the Langley Parkway, saying it would be good for the outer edges of the city and improve traffic flow through some cut-through neighborhoods.
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For David Sky, this election is all about the future of the city’s infrastructure.
He’s long been a critic of the city’s decision to not accept $1.4 million in federal money to reconfigure Loudon Road from four lanes to three, a hotly contested issue in the Heights a few years ago.
Many residents then rejected public officials’ assurances that the change would be a safety improvement and not deadlock traffic. But Sky said the decision wasn’t in line with the city’s Complete Streets philosophy and pointed to Main Street as an instance where making a similar change was successful.
Sky also said the city should be more open-minded about Bow’s request for the city to extend its water services across I-93 and into its business area. Bow’s most recent proposal includes a 50-50 split of the increase in property tax assessments for properties hooked up to Concord’s water system and an offer to pay 10 percent over the current water rates that Concord charges its commercial users.
“I do believe that there’s opportunities for a kind of regional cooperation, that we don’t have to sort of hold our competitive advantage so close,” he said. “Those are some of the things I think the council has been sort of narrow-minded on.”
One area where Sky thinks the city has stepped up as a council and as a community is in its efforts to create a temporary – and now permanent – winter shelter for the homeless.
But he also thinks the city should be aggressive in voicing its concerns about the I-93 expansion project, which he said will have huge repercussions for the city’s downtown and the residents of the Heights. The city has expressed that it would like the state to reconsider some of its preferred alternatives to better facilitate access to the Merrimack River.
“I believe governments are the largest real estate developers, and the infrastructure really creates a template for the city, a personality,” he said.
And when it comes to a more accessible, safer infrastructure, Sky thinks the city could do better.
“A local auto dealer advertises how they know that one can’t live in this area without a vehicle, so they’ve made it their corporate mission to ensure that everybody can get the vehicle they need,” he wrote in a campaign statement. “Unfortunately, creating a community that’s so car-centric disadvantages the young and the poor. It’s expensive to own a car. We talk about attracting young people to the area. We talk about addressing the homeless situation. Yet, when presented with opportunities to address these issues, our Council fails to take the right action.”
Sky thinks the city should reconsider its vision for the Heights, saying its plentiful big-box stores, while providing a decent tax base, are not good for the area’s character long-term.
To do that, he suggested the city get creative with its zoning up there and encouraging more mixed-use developments.
Sky’s motivation to run stands out a bit from his opponents. He originally filed for the Ward 10 race but said he entered the At-Large race when he learned current Ward 4 Councilor Byron Champlin had entered the race and didn’t relinquish his current seat.
Sky said he’s concerned about the city having to hold another special election if Champlin wins, which he said would be costly and disruptive.
A single special ward election is estimated to cost about $2,600, according to city estimates.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s in the city’s best interest for him to be making this kind of decision,” he said. “And that’s a concern of mine. Our council should put the city first.”
(Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that Byron Champlin has been the Ward 4 city councilor for six years.)(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)