Planning Board Postpones Vote on Approval for Cochituate CVS

The members of Wayland's Planning Board convened just after 9 p.m. Tuesday with a draft decision before then that would have granted site plan approval for a single building, a CVS, at 150 Main St.

After hours of going through the decision, including 30 conditions of approval, and hearing a variety of concerns from citizens, the board requested more time to examine the draft document, talk with town counsel and then come to a vote.

A primary difficulty with the site plan approval arose from a desire on both the board's and the developers' part to see fewer parking spaces constructed on the site than required by Wayland's bylaw. The developers, however, have said they want to put forth a "by-right" plan that requires no special permits, which a parking reduction would require.

The board has been in talks with Wayland Town Counsel Mark Lanza to find a way to approve a site plan that shows all the parking spaces could be constructed, and therefore complies with the town's bylaw, but directs the developers to construct fewer than the required spaces.

Ultimately, the board and developers are in agreement with the concept, but how best to legally word it in the site plan decision remains up for some debate.

Another issue that arose is the existence of Hammond Way, a road running through the center of 150 Main St. and providing access to two residences beyond. Town Planner Sarkis Sarkisian said Lanza opined that Hammond Way is a legal road, not an easement as the developers believed, and must therefore be treated as a road in regard to the town's zoning bylaws.

Lanza suggested, and Sarkisian incorporated into the draft decision, a condition of the site plan approval that requires the developers to show legal proof that the road has been abandoned by merging the residences beyond into the parcel at 150 Main St. Another option would be reducing the size of the CVS building to meet the setback requirements, which the developers indicated Tuesday night they were not considering.

Additional questions about the location of sidewalks and the required mitigation at the intersection of Main Street and East/West Plain Street were raised as well.

"I think there’s a number of significant issues that we still have some questions and doubts in our minds that we should get resolved," Planning Board Chairman Kent Greenawalt said. "I think what we have is better than what we had when we started tonight, but we still have some work to do."

The board voted to continue the public hearing to June 7 at 7 p.m.

"The reason we’re delaying the vote is because … we want to do it right," Greenawalt said. "The reason we’re hesitating is we haven’t done it this way before and we gotta make sure we do it right."