Wayland Board of Health moves to streamline chicken-keeping permit approvals

WAYLAND — July 10, 2023 — Wayland Board of Health moves to take routine chicken permits off its own agenda. The board on Monday advanced revisions to its animal-keeping regulations that would let staff approve poultry permits meeting the town's one-acre minimum and 150-foot offset to adjacent dwellings, reserving full-board review for variance requests. The change responds to what staff described as an "influx" of applications, sometimes two or three per agenda. Members reappointed Lisa Wachtery to a two-year term on the Wayland Youth Advisory Committee, which she has chaired since 2020. The board also flagged its concerns about the 172-unit Mill Creek/Madeira 40B proposal at the former Whole Foods site, citing no shared wastewater plan, nitrogen-sensitive-area status and repeated flooding, and noted that a $245,000 regional contact-tracing grant must now be re-budgeted within a year after a state reversal.