OK in hand, developer seeks stores
Developers of Wayland's Town Center project say they will begin trying to sign up tenants for the mixed-use development now that it has been approved by voters.
A zoning change necessary for the Route 20 project, which will include offices, stores, and homes, passed last Wednesday by a 1,752-441 vote, getting considerably more than the two-thirds approval needed.
''It's such a great step forward for the town," said Paulette Greene, a Wayland mother who spearheaded efforts to get the zoning passed. ''I'm just on cloud nine."
The project's scale had been reduced by nearly 20 percent after residents rejected a similar zoning change proposed at a November Special Town Meeting.
The developers, a partnership of KGI Properties and The Congress Group Inc., both of Boston, had threatened to pull out of the project and pursue a housing development on the former
But the Board of Selectmen, which preferred the mixed-use development, worked with the Planning Board to write a zoning ordinance that could satisfy both boards as well as the developer.
Selectmen say the town will benefit from new tax revenues, estimated at $700,000 a year, and a $3.03 million gift from the developer.
Hundreds of residents lined up in the rain outside the Wayland High School field house before debate began.
Chuck Irving, a Wayland resident and a KGI Properties partner, appeared relieved as he hugged residents offering congratulations after the 10 p.m. vote.
''We've got a long way to go," he said, ''but I'm very happy."
Irving said he and his staff would begin the state permitting process and would immediately start calling companies such as Sudbury Farms,
He said he had asked the architect for the project to look at the original drawings and begin thinking about how the reduced project might be designed. But he said design work would not begin until developers met with the Planning Board to hear its vision. for the project.
He also vowed to seek out residents who had opposed the project and discuss how traffic concerns could be addressed.
Opponents said the project, which had been scaled down from 450,000 square feet to 372,500 square feet, was still too large. The grassroots campaign, Wayland Citizens Against Reckless Development, placed signs around town saying, ''Don't Mall Wayland." Some said that studies on the potential impacts of the project, particularly traffic, were inadequate. A consultant to the Planning Board found the project would generate 11,000 car trips on weekdays and 13,000 on Saturdays.
''All of us will be spending more time stuck in our cars," said opponent Susan Reed.
She criticized the developers for threatening the town with a Chapter 40B housing development, which would have allowed the developers to bypass local zoning if they guaranteed that a share of the new housing would be affordable. She said the developers advanced the proposal ''as if it were a weapon of mass destruction."
Lynne A. Dunbrack, chairman-elect of the Planning Board and one of two members to vote against the project, said she believes the stores are still too big and wonders if the shopping center will attract enough shoppers to bring in the tax revenues predicted.
She said the board will begin work immediately to write rules and regulations for the project on the 55-acre parcel.
Supporters of the project said the town needed a destination like Town Center, which developers have said would include a town green, space for a library or other town building, and perhaps even a skating rink.
The zoning amendment calls for 165,000 square feet of space for commercial use and 167,500 square feet for 100 residential units, 25 of them affordable.
