Builder tries deal on traffic

But whether the board will accept the offer, which would end a lawsuit filed by the developer, was uncertain last week.

The Historic District Commission and developer Twenty Wayland have been engaged in a legal battle since last year over restrictions the board placed on the project, which involves the construction of a complex of stores, restaurants, housing, government offices, and a town common on the site of a vacant Raytheon Corp. factory on Route 20.

A key disagreement is a requirement that the developer phase in improvements to the intersection of routes 126, 20 and 27. Twenty Wayland wanted to fix the roads as its Town Center development went up, but the commission ordered it to wait until 94,000 square feet of the space is occupied.

Commission chairwoman Gretchen Schuler said the goal is not to stop the project, but to protect the integrity of the historic district in which it is located.

“We had to acknowledge that this would be a substantial change to the district, and we wanted the developer to look at ways to hold off making the changes,’’ she said.

Twenty Wayland sued the commission, saying it had overstepped its jurisdiction in issuing the requirement.

The developer’s recent settlement offer would allow Twenty Wayland to begin the traffic improvements once it has applied for building permits covering 94,000 square feet of the complex.

“We certainly hope the HDC will ac cept our settlement proposal. We believe it addresses their concerns,’’ said Frank Dougherty, development manager for Twenty Wayland. He said the company is hoping to break ground in April.

Schuler said her board received the compromise offer earlier this month, but has not decided on its response.

The compromise may seem good enough to some, but the conditions the committee laid down weren’t subject to change, she said.

“Obviously it doesn’t meet the requirements because it isn’t what we said in the decision,’’ Schuler said.

Town Administrator Fred Turkington said he hopes the compromise will get the project back in motion, after a long string of permitting issues and several community votes.

If the commission decides to accept Twenty Wayland’s offer, it would leave only one major hurdle before shovels could hit the dirt, Turkington said. The town’s Conservation Commission, like the Historic District Commission, had some concerns with the effect the development would have on the neighborhood.

But negotiations on those concerns should go more quickly, he said.

Twenty Wayland needs three permits from the Conservation Commission to proceed. The first was recently issued after the state’s Department of Environmental Protection stepped in to tweak the commission’s guidelines, Turkington said, while agreements should be reached on the second and third permits now that Twenty Wayland and the commission know where the state stands.

If a compromise is reached between the developer and the Historic District Commission, it would end a legal dispute stalled on a procedural question: Should the commission be allowed to hire its own lawyer when Turkington declined to let the town’s attorney represent it, after Wayland officials decided that the commission had overstepped its jurisdiction?

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Leila Kerns ruled in November that the commission could arrange separate representation, and the state Appeals Court upheld the decision last month.

Twenty Wayland has said it is considering an appeal to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, but is waiting to hear the commission’s response to its compromise solution before taking that step.

Schuler said she would like to see the ordeal end, but she’s not certain the proposed compromise would end it.

“I’d love not to have to think about this anymore,’’ she said. “I’m not sure what we can do to make that happen.’’