A new vote on center plan

Wayland residents will decide Wednesday on whether to revive the Town Center project, a large development on Route 20 that would include a mix of homes, stores, and offices.

Supporters of the project, which is to be voted on at a Special Town Meeting, note that it has been scaled down from 450,000 square feet to 372,500 square feet since the plan failed at a Town Meeting last fall.

But opponents still have questions about its impact on the community.

Jeff Porter, an environmental lawyer who is a member of Citizens Against Reckless Development, a group that was formed to battle the project, said the town has not undertaken in-depth studies to determine its impact.

He is still concerned about the effect of increased traffic on nine streets in town, including Glezen Lane, where he lives.

And Porter has voiced worries that the project will be a drain on the town's finances and water supply.

''I'm not willing to support something until I understand what the impacts of supporting [it] will be," he said.

The opponents also say the project resembles a shopping mall. They have chosen to stick with a slogan from the November campaign, ''Don't Mall Wayland."

Michael Tichnor, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, which worked with the Planning Board for months to hammer out the zoning amendment enabling the project that will be considered at Town Meeting, said the new proposal is anything but an everyday shopping mall.

He pointed to the planned 2.5-acre green space, a spot for a new library or another town building, a canoe landing, and a possible skating pond.

''I don't know of any malls or shopping centers that have all those features," he said.

Paulette Greene, a mother of two young children, said she thinks the project will be a financial boon to the town.

Greene has led a group of supporters handing out fliers outlining the project's benefits and erecting signs with the slogan ''Fits Our Town -- Funds Our Future."

A consultant to the Planning Board has estimated that the development would bring in $1.2 million annually in property and excise taxes while providing services to it would cost $480,000. The developer will also provide a $3.03 million gift to the town as part of a development agreement.

''The financial benefits go on and on and on," Greene said. ''Given the financial crisis we're in, I just don't see how we can turn down an opportunity to increase tax revenue -- and turn down a $3 million gift."

Voters approved a $2.1 million tax increase last week that town officials said was needed to maintain services.

Tichnor has argued that the town needs the project's financial benefits, and he has worked to keep the developer interested in a mixed-use concept.

Last year, the Planning Board decided not to support a zoning ordinance it had written for the project, and the ordinance failed, 745-619, at a Nov. 1 Special Town Meeting, getting less than the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

This time the two boards are backing a zoning ordinance crafted with input from Streetscape, a subsidiary of KGI Properties, and the Congress Group Inc., project partners.

The Planning Board voted 3-2 to back the ordinance, which calls for 165,000 square feet of space for commercial use and 167,500 square feet for 100 residential units, 25 of them affordable.

Selectmen voiced unanimity in their support.

The developers have said that if the town rejects this project, they will build housing under Chapter 40B, a state law that allows developers in many towns to bypass local zoning if they promise to set aside a portion of the development for affordable housing. The Planning Board consultant, Judith A. Barrett of Community Opportunities Group Inc. of Boston, estimated that the project, submitted to the state in February, would generate $1.2 million but would cost $985,000 in services.

The Planning Board's traffic consultancy, TEC Inc. of Lawrence, found that the new, scaled-down proposal would generate less traffic than last fall's plan. But it would generate significantly more trips through the area than the 40B housing development. On weekdays and Saturdays, the housing development would generate more than 1,100 trips, while the Town Center project would generate 11,000 on weekdays and 13,000 on Saturdays.

The Town Meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Wayland High School fieldhouse.