Mathworks plan hinges on Route 9
Although town planners continue to work with The Mathworks to address neighborhood concerns about a proposed major expansion of its Route 9 headquarters, they say it's all just talk unless cash for improvements to the congested state highway comes through.
"Our permitting of this project at any level is subject to the issue of access," Natick Planning Board member Julian Munnich said at the panel's meeting Wednesday night. "We have no evidence of sufficient access, of workable access. Why would we be refining something that is not determined?"
The board set aside Munnich's proposal that members put off consideration of such details as landscaping and lighting until they can determine whether the expansion is viable. But board members made it clear all negotiations about the project's details remain speculative until the future of that section of Route 9 becomes more clear.
Mathworks, a software development firm with headquarters along Route 9 in Natick between North Main and Walnut streets, wants to build an additional 165,000-square-foot office building and a parking garage.
That proposal is opposed by the adjacent Walnut Hill neighborhood group and other neighbors who are particularly concerned about the traffic impact of 600 new employees at the facility, as well as the aesthetic impact of a parking garage behind their homes. They've compared the size of the garage to the battleship USS Iowa.
Officials from Mathworks, which also plans to eliminate the retail stores on the property, said Wednesday they would eliminate one level of the proposed parking garage. That would reduce its height to 36 feet from about 50 feet, and its capacity to 946 cars from 1,040 cars.
Al Spagnolo, the Boston-based architect for Mathworks, described several other adjustments to the site plan that were based on neighborhood and town concerns. Light posts that had been planned for the garage's top level would be replaced with car-level lights along the inside edge of garage walls. A second shuttle stop has been added to encourage employees to use public transportation. Mathworks landscape architect John Copley said a natural berm on the west side of the campus would be widened and additional trees added to shield the neighborhood from the view of the garage.
Planners applauded those moves, but concerns about Route 9 hovered over the meeting.
Natick community development director Pat Reffett said town officials remain confused over a recent state traffic improvement grant of $1 million -- $16 million less than the town requested. The money, from a jobs-creation grant fund, was requested for a plan to add a stop light and flyover on Route 9 near the site.
The new fund is called the Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion (MORE) Jobs Capital program. "The response to our request for 'MORE' was less, much less," Reffett said. He said the grant award did not indicate whether the money was to be used for traffic improvement, engineering, or other related uses.
Still, town officials say they have reason for optimism. State and federal officials who met last month with town and Mathworks officials agreed major improvements to Route 9 were needed.
Reffett said a second meeting planned for Thursday with state Highway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky will give the town an idea of how much of an ongoing financial commitment to Route 9 officials can expect.
But Planning Board member Robert Foster cautioned Mathworks that "we still have to apply our zoning bylaw," regardless of what improvements are made to Route 9. "Fixing Route 9 should be done no matter what," he said.
The Planning Board will continue considering the expansion at its Sept. 5 meeting.
John C. Drake can be reached at 508-820-4229 or jdrake@globe.com. 
