Wayland Select Board pulls $200,000 Route 20 engineering article in reversal

WAYLAND -- February 26, 2024, Wayland Select Board reverses course and pulls $200,000 Route 20 engineering article. The board voted 3-1 Monday to drop the warrant item after Finance Committee objections that the request bypassed the town's capital planning process. Acting Chair Bill Whitney said the pushback was "much stronger than I anticipated," and acknowledged the $200,000 figure was "literally a number plucked out of the air" as a compromise between earlier $600,000 and $800,000 scopes. Member Thomas Fay warned, "You don't get anywhere by half doing it." Town Manager Michael McCall said other funds may keep preliminary work alive. The same meeting set a March 12 public hearing on the town's MBTA Communities zoning bylaw and heard a tax-increment financing pitch from Origin Cell CEO Wayne Wang, who is negotiating to buy the Candela property.