Politics & Government

Bottle Ban, School Buses Going Back Before Concord Town Meeting

Special Town Meeting's set for Dec. 4, and we'll tell you what's on the warrant.

A pair of hot button issues from this spring will be back before a special Town Meeting in December. Yes, bus depots and bottle bans will again go before the voters of Concord.

This time, Town Meeting will be asked about a land purchase which could lead to a place for a bus depot, and in a separate article, will be asked again to revoke the town’s bylaw banning the sale of drinking water in plastic bottles. A third article will seek an easement for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

The article driving this special Town Meeting involves a land acquisition on Knox Trail in Acton.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The article itself would authorize the purchase of approximately 6.5 acres of land off Knox Trail in Acton, upon which the School Committee proposes to park school buses and any other vehicles related to school transportation.

This property abuts about 80 acres of the WR Grace land, which Town Meeting voted to authorize the acquisition of in 2012, according to a draft article, which notes the newly proposed acquisition would also potentially serve as an additional way to access the WR Grace land.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

This special Town Meeting article is another chance for a bus depot after this past spring, when annual Town Meeting voted to put neither a conservation restriction nor a bus depot on the landfill site at Walden Woods.

A petitioner’s article from resident Michael Benn will ensure the upcoming special Town Meeting will mark the fifth time in four years Concord has voted on its now infamous bottle ban.

This latest article, as the second attempt at revoking the ban, will seek to do what could not be done this past April: Repeal the town’s landmark bottle-banning bylaw.

According to its submitted language, this warrant article will “Determine whether the town of Concord will vote to repeal in its entirety the bylaw known as ‘Drinking Water in Single-Serve PET Bottles Bylaw’ that was adopted under Article 32 of the 2012 annual Town Meeting.”

The third article will seek an easement for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

Stay tuned to Patch for more coverage on the warrant articles in the weeks ahead. 


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