Planning Board recommends against self-storage and solar cluster zoning articles

WAYLAND — May 1, 2024 — Wayland Planning Board unanimously recommends against self-storage and solar cluster zoning articles. Chair Anette S. Lewis, member Jen Steele and member Larry Kiernan, on Zoom, voted 3-0 against both citizen petitions for the May town meeting warrant. Article 27 would have created a Business B-1 sub-district covering only 193 Commonwealth Road, allowing retail self-storage with at least 3 percent of the building reserved as community space, parking at one space per 15,000 square feet, and lot coverage rising from 25 percent to 35 percent. Lewis called the parking inadequate, the community-space protections too soft, and the single-parcel approach a poor precedent. Attorney Joshua Fox defended the bylaw as a "drive-in facility" with typically one employee; abutter Joseph Strisula called the parking standard "the most liberal and unrestricted" in the bylaw. The board also rejected petitioner Winsor Mallow's solar compact conservation cluster, citing conflicts with the use table and Article 18, though members praised the underlying concept and offered to help redraft.