Concord City Council approves fundraising for Martin Park bike park studies, faces pushback from neighbors

Finding the right location to build a bike park in Concord has been no easy task.

Proponents of the park, along with Parks and Recreation Director David Gill, recommended studying Martin Park as a site because of its natural features, accessibility and space. But many neighbors believe they have it all wrong.

Last Monday, the Concord City Council approved Gill’s recommendation to allow park enthusiasts to raise money for planning and site studies, which will help determine if a bike park would be feasible at Martin Park. Fundraising will be organized through Central New Hampshire New England Mountain Biking Association in conjunction with Concord Parks and Recreation.

In these early stages of the project, some supporters and opponents are abutters to the park, pitting neighbor against neighbor.

Ian West, who lives on Iron Works Road, voiced his disapproval of the project to the city as far back as March 2025. In his letters, documented among other citizens’ comments provided to the city council, he noted that some work had already happened — bike trail creation, jumps and other features made by bicyclists without authorization.

In his most recent correspondence with city officials, he summarized his concerns: Martin Park’s lack of accessibility by sidewalk, parking safety, general safety, overmanagement of trails, and the use of both dirt and e-bikes.

He noted that he overlayed heat maps from a popular running, cycling and outdoor recreation mobile app, Strava, over trail maps of Concord to demonstrate where rogue trails are located around the city. Places such as Martin Park and Winant Park have been overrun and damaged, West said.

West, despite still believing the site is the wrong place for a bike park, would like to see a full remediation of unsanctioned trails, improved signage for walking and bicycle trails, the prohibition of dirt bikes in the park, a full reconfiguration of the parking lot and removal of the one-way cut through that surrounds abutters’ property, plus the construction of a sidewalk.

“There are criteria for adding trails, and the members of the trail committee have to follow those criteria, and you know some don’t,” West said. “And one of the things that slows or stops the additional trails is community opposition. So why is this opposition being kind of discounted? I’m not sure.”

West isn’t alone in his concerns. Other neighbors from the area, Pam Sinotte, Lisa Aquizap and Mary Davidson, all expressed similar concerns.

Sinotte and Davidson have lived around Martin Park for decades. Sinotte remembers visiting the woods as a child and seeing vernal pools, along with salamanders and other wildlife that lived in the area — and still do.

Davidson remembers when her basement flooded because excessive groundwater infiltrated a system of sonotubes for a garage extension. She and her neighbors also said Martin Park is home to pileated woodpeckers and other species that can be very sensitive to human presence in their habitat.

Sinotte said she worries that a bike park “would really have a serious impact on a sensitive environment.”

Aquizap, one of the closest neighbors to the proposed site, pointed to inconsistent communication from bike park proponents and the city regarding the project — from meeting times to walk-throughs to the different visions for what the park would actually look like. It has left her confused and worried about the impact this park will have on her life, including the possibility that her property may be vandalized.

Supporters of the bike park tell a different story. They see Martin Park as the right place for a bike park and note that the city has only approved exploratory work and planning, not construction of any kind yet.

The bike park received avid written support when it was recommended to city the council, with 26 people writing in, many of them children, to voice their support for the project.

Among the bike park’s supporters are Craig Tufts and Andy Gould, who is also a neighbor in the area.

Gould said he thinks the bike park will provide a centralized location for kids already riding in that area and will keep riders off of rogue trails.

“There’s no wetlands that we know of. Yeah, it’s an unused part of the park that no one’s using, and it wouldn’t disrupt existing trails for walking or biking or whatnot,” Gould said. “It wouldn’t disrupt the feel or the look of the park, which is one of our big goals: is to not really not really change anything. Honestly, we’re gonna cut as few trees as possible.”

Tufts echoed that same idea. Part of the reason why they’ve looked at different locations and bike park models is that they’ve listened to community input. Modeling the Concord park around Portsmouth’s would be more feasible, compared to Keene’s wide-open park.

They’re still in the early days, figuring out their fundraising and looking at contractors for designs.

On the city website, it says that the Parks and Recreation looked at mutliple possible locations, including: Rollins Park, Broken Ground: Unitil property off Portsmouth St, State Property near Clinton and Langley, Rolfe Park in Penacook, Keach Park, Terrill Park, Sanel Park, Kimball Park Behind the Boys and Girls Club, Grappone Park/Liberty St Private Land near Horseshoe Pond and future Rail Trail/MRGT, Beaver Meadow Park, Private Property near Rumford St/Penacook St, Private Property near Concord Hospital, Kiwanis Park/Everett Arena, Conservation Land near the Merrimack River Greenway Trail/Sunfox Farm.

Martin Park was the favored location for a variety of reasons, including cost, accessibility, existing environmental maps, and support from proponents. Gill’s recommendation to the city council stressed the need for further in-depth environmental studies.

For abutters, that still raises questions. They want an independent study across multiple seasons. Davidson, for example, noted that if the studies are done during dry months, the results won’t reveal how much life there actually is within the wooded area, and they won’t see the potential knock-on effects of clearing land to make room for a pump track, or the impact human activity would have on the area.

The city has provided maps of wetland areas, but the design and environmental study specifically looking at the area should reveal whether the project is feasible at Russel Martin Park.