Potter Farm, off Oak Hill Road in Concord, to be conserved and protected from future development

  • The Concord City Council approved the purchase of a conservation easement to protect 88 acres at the Potter farm on Oak Hill Road for $224,500.  Michaela Towfighi—Monitor staff

  • The Concord City Council approved the purchase of a conservation easement to protect 88 acres at the Potter farm on Oak Hill Road for $224,500. Michaela Towfighi / Monitor staff

  • The Concord City Council approved the purchase of a conservation easement to protect 88 acres at the Potter farm on Oak Hill Road for $224,500. The land is a working farm with a vegetable stand. Michaela Towfighi—Monitor staff

  • The Concord City Council approved the purchase of a conservation easement to protect 88 acres at the Potter farm on Oak Hill Road for $224,500. The land is a working farm with a vegetable stand. —Courtesy

Monitor staff
Published: 8/9/2022 3:44:59 PM

The Potter Farm off Oak Hill Road will soon be protected from development after the Concord City Council approved the purchase of a conservation easement for $224,500. 

Conversations between the Potter family and the city’s conservation commission began two years ago when the family wanted to discuss protecting their farmland. The property consists of two parcels of land, totaling nearly 88 acres on either side of the road. 

The farm is located on the south side of Oak Hill Road, with 26.9 acres of open fields and farmland along Turtle Pond. Vegetables like potatoes, squash and other produce are grown there.

The parcel of land on the north side of the road is 56 acres of woods, as well as a 5½-acre homestead for the Potter family. The parcel is next to another piece on conservation land.

In 2020, the land was appraised at a value of $449,000. The Five Rivers Conservation Trust will fund half of the purchase of the easement with money from the National Resource Conservation Service and U.S. De partment of Agriculture, the State of New Hampshire Moose plate grant program and the Merrimack Conservation partnership. Five Rivers will also be responsible for monitoring the property.

The purpose of the conservation easement is to protect the natural habitat, forest and agricultural soils from development, according to a report from Beth Fenstermacher, assistant city planner. The easement will also allow the Potter family to continue farming the land, which they have done for generations.

Jim Owers, vice chair of the conservation commission, noted at Monday’s meeting that the appraisal indicated that the land is not ideal for housing development. Since the land is beyond the urban compact zone of the city, it has no city water or sewer.

The council voted unanimously to approve the purchase. The funds from the city are from the Conservation Trust Fund.

“This is an important parcel in the historic agricultural neighborhood, so we are excited to have the opportunity to conserve this parcel,” said Fenstermacher.


MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

Michaela Towfighi is a Report for America corps member covering the Two New Hampshires for the Monitor. She graduated from Duke University with a degree in public policy and journalism and media studies in 2022. At Duke she covered education, COVID-19, the 2020 election and helped edit stories about the Durham County Courthouse for The 9th Street Journal and the triangle area's alt-weekly Indy Week. Her story about a family grappling with a delayed trial for a fatal car accident in Concord won first place in Duke’s Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism. Towfighi is an American expat who calls London, England, home despite being born in Boston.

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