Entryway spat stalls project

The developer of the proposed $140 million Wayland Town Center has once again threatened to pull out of the project.

During the Planning Board's ongoing review of a master special permit application for the project, Frank Dougherty, the project manager for development partnership Twenty Wayland LLC, told officials that the company would not pursue the development if it can't have two entryways.

Since the mixed-use development of stores, office space, and condos was formally proposed on former Raytheon Co. property more than two years ago, the developer has threatened to abandon the project more than once. Earlier this year, the developer did walk away temporarily.

The latest threat came late last month, as Planning Board members were discussing how they feel about the current design and layout of the project. Asked how many roads in and out of the project Dougherty believes are needed, he firmly told the board that without two entrances, the developers would not proceed.

Developer Charles Irving of KGI Properties, which teamed up with The Congress Group Inc., both of Boston, to form Twenty Wayland and develop the Town Center, said the project team considered the impact a single entrance would have on traffic in the Route 20 system, and how it would affect the flow of traffic through the development. "We're just not up for that," he said.

With one entrance, Irving said, "It looks like a shopping center, not a town center."

He said the development group wanted to be open with the board about its stance that a single entrance would not work. He said potential tenants have no interest in a project without two entrances. "We don't want to mislead anybody," Irving said. "We told the town we would create a town center. A one-access cul-de-sac . . . is completely opposite of what we committed to do."

Though the developers had expressed a clear preference for two access points, it wasn't until that meeting they suggested it was a deal breaker. In the development agreement for the project, the developer had agreed to go along with a single access point and not appeal the decision if the Planning Board opposed two entryways, Planning Board member Lynne Dunbrack said.

Dunbrack said that during the concept plan phase, the developers told the board they could develop the project with either one or two access points. "This turnabout was a bit of a surprise," she said.

She said she reacted negatively to the threat because she believes the board has a responsibility to understand the traffic impacts of the Town Center project and to grasp how mitigation would work before deciding whether the project should have one or two entrances.

"We would have much more productive dialogues if they didn't resort to these sort of threats," she said.

Planning Board chairman Bill Steinberg did not return calls for comment.

In January, the developers said they were walking away from the project, citing resistance from town boards. But after Steinberg was elected to run the Planning Board and a new chairman was chosen for the Board of Road Commissioners, the developers returned to negotiations with the town.

Early last month, the developer proposed seven traffic mitigation options, all of which featured two access points.

The town's traffic consultant, Kevin Dandrade, recommended two points of entry to town officials last week.