Wayland EDC moves to send Route 20 master plan feedback to Planning Board

WAYLAND — March 10, 2023 — Wayland EDC plans to intervene on Route 20 master plan process. The Economic Development Committee agreed Friday to draft a structured list of questions and request time on the Planning Board's March 21 agenda after members panned the BETA consultants' opening visioning session, which drew about 80 residents but relied on imagery of dense urban downtowns unlike a 35-mph state highway. Members said the polling was "wholly irrelevant" to a corridor anchored by Russell's Garden Center, Town Center and Whole Foods Plaza, and that BETA had not yet engaged the major property owners. Town Planner Robert Hummel separately said the St. Ann's 40B project — with a town comment letter due to DHCD by March 29 — is shaping up as a Conservation Commission "slam dunk," and that the Planning Board has filed a letter "enthusiastically in support." The committee meets again April 14.