Planning Board Votes on Curbcut for Finnerty's Site, Eyes Site Plan Approval

Planning Board members Tuesday night paved the way for approval of the 150 Main Street site plan, even as they voted against a proposed Main Street curbcut that will necessitate some site plan modifications.

Wayland residents Matthew Levy and Jesse Adelman purchased the property, commonly known as the Finnerty's property, on the corner of West Plain and Main streets in 2011. They have since drawn up plans to redevelop the corner with two new buildings -- a CVS and a mixed-use, two-story commercial building featuring a restaurant, other retail shops and upstairs office space.

The plans for the development called for three curbcuts, two on West Plain Street and one on Main Street. An independent traffic engineer suggested Tuesday night that the site only needed two curbcuts -- both on West Plain or one on Main Street along with the eastern most proposed entrance on West Plain.

"As far as responding to the number of driveways, I don’t believe they need all three," said Kevin Dandrade, the traffic engineer with TEC, Inc., that the town hired to examine the project. Dandrade said during a previous public hearing on the topic that he found a right-turn-in, right-turn-out only option for Main Street would be appropriate. He affirmed that assessment Tuesday night, but added his opinion about the number of total driveways needed.

The developers' traffic engineer, Dermot Kelly, argued, however, that eliminating the Main Street curbcut would require all southbound traffic on Main Street to come through the intersection, driving through two pedestrian crosswalks there, and then enter the development from West Plain where they would drive through a third crosswalk.

"I personally think [the Main Street curbcut is] critical in the sense that if you don’t allow the right turn in, all that traffic has to come down to the intersection and cross one, two, three pedestrian crossings," Kelly said.

In the end, Planning Board Chairman Kent Greenawalt was the only member to vote in favor of the Main Street curbcut, creating a vote of 4-1 against the curbcut.

"I think this site plan is much, much better than the first one I saw," said board member Kevin Murphy. "In a normal layout, without any other considerations, having one entrance on Main Street and one on West Plain would be optimal. But this is different. This is probably the most used sidewalk in the town.

"At least until we have more adequate pedestrian infrastructure on Main Street, I’d prefer to see the two entrances on West Plain.”

Traffic Mitigation

The board also voted, this time unanimously, to approve Dandrade's suggested traffic mitigation plan for the developers to implement at the intersection and surrounding the site. The plan calls for, among other things, the replacement of signal posts and signal heads, modified signal phasing, pedestrian pushbuttons and countdown signals at the intersection, and sidewalk improvements all along the site frontage.

The Planning Board added a requirement for a pedestrian warning light at the crosswalk from the ball field to the site further down West Plain Street.

The total cost of mitigation was estimated at $100,000-$116,000, and Dandrade recommended that the developers be protected from a "creeping" scope of the work associated with the intersection.

Town Planner Sarkis Sarkisian said he will work with Wayland's Department of Public Works to determine whether that department has funds and capacity to handle reasonable improvements to the intersection that are outside the developers' responsibility, but make sense as the developers mitigation efforts are implemented.

In another vote, the board approved, this time 4-0 after member Ira Montague left early, reserving an easement along the roads to allow for future intersection improvements and realignment. Sarkisian said he will work with Town Counsel Mark Lanza to ensure the dimensions of the easement don't create non-conformity of the buildings when it comes to the required setbacks.

Site Plan Approval

During the more than three-hour hearing, Planning Board members also discussed multiple elements of the overall site plan, but acknowledged that the denial of the Main Street curbcut had created some modifications to what they'd been presented.

In particular, the location of dumpsters was questioned and will be reexamined prior to final plan approval.

The colors of the buildings; hours of operation, deliveries, and dumpster service; site lighting; and the redesigned rear facade of the mixed-use building were all addressed. The board unanimously authorized Sarkisian to draft the site plan with modifications decision, with the expectation that it would be approved during the next Planning Board meeting on Jan. 22.

The board then plans to hold a public hearing related to special permits for parking and signage on Feb. 5.