Wayland landfill committee splits recreation, housing tracks after DEP pushback

WAYLAND — October 10, 2025 — Wayland landfill committee leans recreation-first as DEP signals housing would mean digging out the dump. Weston and Sampson engineer Lee Koska told the Route 20 South Landfill Visioning Committee on Friday that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection sees residential construction as "a stretch" without removing 25,000 to 30,000 tons of buried waste — a job Town Manager Tom Holder pegged at roughly $7 million, with consultant Ed Shakir citing $5 million. A multipurpose playing field, by contrast, would need only design permitting. Chair Tom Fay deferred a request for information from housing developers; member Mike Spelman cited budget pressure, saying he worried "what is the town going to have enough operating budget in the next two or three years." The committee approved its March 29, 2024 minutes 5-0-1, with Mark Norton abstaining.