Susan Woods and Jennifer Robson of Concord are both members of Concord Greenspace.

The owners of the abandoned Gulf Gas station across from Concord High School (between Warren and Pleasant Streets) have submitted a request to the Planning Board for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to reopen this location.

There are many reasons this is a dangerous plan for Concord — traffic, public safety, economy, and aesthetics, to name a few.

First and foremost this is a huge public safety issue. Members of the Transportation Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC) report the Gulf station’s location at Pleasant, Warren, and N. Fruit Streets is an exceedingly dangerous intersection in Concord and should be high on the list of intersections to be reconfigured, with plans for a roundabout.

When the Gulf station was operational it made an already dangerous five-way intersection even more complicated and difficult for automobiles, cyclists and pedestrians to navigate. This location is busy with city bus stops, school buses, a large volume of cars, and Concord High School students walking to school from surrounding neighborhoods and the designated student parking lots at Warren Street and Memorial Field.

If you’ve ever driven through the intersection at the beginning or end of the school day, you know it’s further congested by parents dropping off and picking up students from their vehicles pulled to the side of the street. Further pressure on the intersection will come from the state’s mental health facility slated to be built on the abutting state property at the corner of S. Fruit and Pleasant Streets.

Critical to this picture are ambulances transporting patients to Concord Hospital. Congested areas are always problematic for the speedy and safe transport of those needing emergency care without endangering other vehicles and pedestrians.

The city should move forward with plans to build a roundabout and redesign this intersection to be safer for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. This would come as a shot in the arm with the potential to turn a congested and dangerous intersection into a safer, more fluid transportation corridor.

We ask the Planning Board not to approve anything on the Gulf property that could preclude the city’s own intersection improvements. An active gas station at this location will significantly increase the danger to all who travel in and around the area and to what end?

There’s already a functional gas station across the street. Please come to the Planning Board meeting on February 15 at 7 p.m. in City Chambers to be heard on this issue.

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