Selectmen Hear About New Plans for Old Housing Project

Wayland’s Board of Selectmen Monday night learned about the current status of a project last in discussion several years ago.

The Danforth Housing Project in Framingham, just over the Wayland line on Old Connecticut Path, is back under negotiation, with some changes, after having been tabled for a number of years.

On Monday, Roy MacDowell, a representative with Baystone Development, met with selectmen, representatives from several other Wayland boards, and individuals familiar with the history of the project through their involvement several years ago. His company is in talks with both Framingham and Wayland to develop the project and has the land, adjacent to the Pod Meadow Conservation Area, under agreement.

All of the planned construction is in Framingham, but with it being so close to the Wayland line, “the development idea clearly would affect Wayland,” pointed out Board of selectmen chair Tom Fay.

The effect on Wayland, in fact, led to a financial settlement years ago.

In 2005, Wayland secured a financial settlement related to the project and worth $1.45 million. The settlement was intended to cover the cost of traffic mitigation, maintaining the nearby conservation land at Pod Meadow, and preparing for well and water issues in Wayland connected to the settlement, among a few other things.

MacDowell came to Wayland Monday specifically to outline possible new plans for the development as well as to discuss the possibility of renegotiating that 7-year-old financial settlement. He said his company’s plans for a smaller development could justify a smaller settlement.

The plan Baystone Development is considering would reduce the number of units to 350 down from the 2005 plan of 525. That reduction in units allows the entire development to be constructed on the portion of the parcel that does not abut the Sudbury River. The working plan, still in its early stages, would allow the riverside parcel, about 67 acres, to be cleaned up and designed as passive recreation green space.

The development plan itself, MacDowell said, is to construct for-sale properties of mostly two-story units and a few three-story buildings. The units would range from about 1,600 square feet to 2,000 square feet, he said.

Unlike in the 2005 plan, there is no commercial property being considered, MacDowell said.

Currently, the land under discussion, “Looks like something out of a horror movie.”

“The piece is a disaster,” MacDowell said. “There’s debris everywhere. It’s an unsecured site, and it’s a shame because it’s just a mess.”

While Wayland selectmen and other representatives at the meeting agreed it would be nice to have the site cleaned up and were generally pleased to see it would be a smaller development overall, they were still concerned about the impact of the development on Wayland.

“I think all of the concerns that we worked on from day one are still the same concerns today,” said Anette Lewis, who served as a Wayland road commissioner at the time of the 2005 discussions. “Our big concerns were, No. 1, traffic.”

Traffic studies conducted in 2005 or before, Lewis said, indicated increased traffic would be likely as Danforth Housing Project residents utilized West Plain Street and Old Connecticut Path to reach I-90. In fact, Wayland has already received $50,000 from the settlement to complete the design work for a stoplight for that particular intersection.

Wayland has also completed a crossing at on Old Connecticut Path apart from the project, though that crossing was also a concern in 2005.

The effect on Wayland’s water supply and wells is also of concern today just as it was years ago.

There is currently no closing date for the property as MacDowell and his colleagues want to get a sense of Framingham’s and Wayland’s support for the project before proceeding.

Wayland selectmen agreed to continue discussing the project in the coming weeks.