For years, a Concord resident has complained to the city that a section of a wooded city trail is a blight on his property.
The conservation commission is expected to weigh in Wednesday night on René Marro’s request to close down the portion of the West End Farm Trail nearest his property.
“Not only can we not use backyardyard to sit and enjoy a meal on our deck in the summertime without gawkers on the superhuman highway that was created behind our house by the city,” he wrote to city officials in 2024. “We no longer feel safe and can’t even let our dogs out to go to the bathroom or play due to the unmonitored, rude and inconsiderate people who roam the trail.”
The trail runs a little more than seven miles from Carter Hill Orchard to Silk Farm Road and winds through and around a string of historic farmlands on Concord’s west side. The city acquired the land for this section of the trail in 2010.
Marro’s five acres run alongside a middle section of the trail, between Diamond Hill and Rossview farms. For more than three years, he has told city officials that people using the trail and a trailhead parking lot have made his home “a miserable place to be.” Marro has cited trash, uncontrolled pets, and trespassing on his land.
Trail users, from people who walk and run to snowmobile association members who use and maintain it in the winter, have asked the city not to close down that section.
Furthermore, walkers and neighbors have said that the main disturbances on the trail are actually caused by Marro. They’ve described his dogs approaching them aggressively, loudspeakers pointed at the trail and gunshots coming from the direction of his property, where he has a firing range, as they traverse. Concord Police officers have observed in reports that Marro has apparently blocked the entrance to the trailhead parking lot in the winter by plowing it in.
GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor
“I work in Concord and enjoy trail running before and after work on a number of trails in Concord, including this one,” Kathleen Soukup wrote to the Commission last month. “Our enjoyment has certainly been marred by the nearby homeowners who have destroyed the aesthetic of the space with their political signs and also disturbed the peace of the trail by yelling at us… It would be a shame to lose access to this trail because one homeowner wants to close it.”
While Marro previously asked that the city close the parking lot on Currier Road, which serves as a midway trailhead, he has more recently asked the conservation to discontinue that portion of the trail.
Marro observes the trail and parking lot with cameras. By his tally, just a few people use it per day on average. He has argued that the public demand for the trail falls short of the burden it is on him and his family.
The Conservation will weigh further public testimony and take up Marro’s request to discontinue a section of the trail at its meeting Wednesday night in council chambers.
