Planning Board reverses course, will consider full Coptic church project

WAYLAND — December 29, 2025 — Wayland Planning Board reverses course and will weigh full Coptic church approval at 169 Rice Road. In a 3-2 straw poll Monday night, members Larry Kiernan, Vice Chair Robin Borgestedt and Albert I. Montague Jr. directed staff to draft an approval decision for the entire three-building project — church, Sunday school and 24-unit residential building — rather than phase one alone. Chair Anette S. Lewis and Clerk Jesse Newberry dissented. Applicant's attorney Jonathan Silverstein had told the board that a phase-only approval would trigger a Land Court declaratory judgment action and a federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act claim, calling a church-only approval of "absolutely no value." The church voluntarily offered to permanently restrict 20 percent of the residential units at 80 percent AMI and to complete construction within five years. The board unanimously closed the hearing and extended the decision deadline to Feb. 13, 2026.