Wayland Conservation Commission Unanimously Denies 12-Unit Townhouse Over Groundwater Dispute

WAYLAND — November 20, 2024 — Wayland's Conservation Commission voted 6-0 Wednesday to deny a proposed 12-unit townhouse development at 24 School Street, citing unresolved and sharply conflicting groundwater analyses. The commission had retained an independent peer reviewer, Dr. Matt Davis, whose analysis projected seven feet of groundwater mounding beneath the site; the applicant's engineering team, led by Dr. Du Shang Wang and Stephen Smith of GeoHydroCycle Incorporated, calculated approximately 0.46 feet. Michael Mobile, PhD, of McDonald Morrissey Associates, testifying for abutters, called the applicant's MODFLOW model "consequentially flawed in a variety of ways," arguing that slug-test hydraulic conductivity data were overestimated by multiple orders of magnitude. Commission member Luke Legere said he put the most weight on the peer reviewer's findings and was "not comfortable approving this project as proposed." The commission also grappled with an ongoing crumb rubber contamination problem at the high school athletic fields, where town official Michael McCall reported that cleanup bids had ranged from $60,000 to $90,000, substantially all prior cleanup funds have been spent, and a qualified contractor has not yet been secured before a stated end-of-March 2025 deadline.