Permitting for Station is almost complete

The Planning Board unanimously approved an amendment to the area master plan special permit for Westwood Station Tuesday night, OKing changes made to accommodate anchor tenants Target and Wegmans supermarket.

Planning Board Chairman Rob Malster said the amended master plan includes major changes both to the "marketplace" retail area south of University Avenue, and to the office park on the west side of Westwood Station Boulevard, which has been reconfigured.

While Target and Wegmans were originally pegged for separate buildings, they will now occupy one large building on Market Street. The updated master plan includes a parking garage across the street and roads, Malster said.

Most of the retail-area changes were necessary to accommodate Target and Wegmans in the tightly packed southern end of the marketplace, Malster said.

Planning Board member Steven Olanoff said the design for the area including Target and Wegmans is "a big change" from a typical development, in which a big-box store is surrounded by a huge parking lot.

Instead, Westwood Station's marketplace will have "greater density and better land use," as Target will be stacked atop Wegmans, with walkways connecting to the parking garage directly across the street, Olanoff said. There will be street-level and upper-level sidewalks by the two stores.

Developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes filed its area master plan amendment request in March, after the Planning Board approved the original plan last December.

With the Planning Board's vote Tuesday night, Malster said, "We cleared the largest hurdle for the town, for the Planning Board and for the developer" as the board's permitting work on Westwood Station nears its end.

Four and a half million square feet of retail, residential, hotel and office space are envisioned for the $1.5 billion Westwood Station project, which many people consider key to Westwood's economic future.

Jay Doherty, the president of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, called the amended master plan special permit "a very important milestone for the project," one that will accelerate Westwood Station's construction.

"We are very appreciative of the tremendous amount of hard work done by the Planning Board," he said.

Doherty said infrastructure construction has been the focus of work on the site the last four months, as major utility lines have been relocated and new roads built.

"We're hoping in spring that we'll be able to go into building construction," he said.

Doherty told State House News Service last week that two or three tenants have walked away from the project due to a deteriorating national economy.

Meantime, the Planning Board is still reviewing the developer's application for Phase 1B of the environmental impact and design review, and the developer's proposed amendment to its "definitive subdivision" plan.

"We hope to, with some diligent work over the next few weeks, wrap up those other processes before the end of the year," Malster said.

The development agreement between the Board of Selectmen and Cabot, Cabot & Forbes called for the builder to make a $1.75 million payment to the town in fiscal 2009, with another payment of $2.75 million due for fiscal 2010, Malster said. The $2.75 million payment was tied to the Planning Board's completion of its permitting work by a target date of Aug. 1 of this year, later extended to Sept. 1.

Malster said his board had been working in good faith with the developer all fall, but simply could not meet the earlier time frame. He noted his board had not been a party to setting the deadline.

He said the Planning Board had expressed its concern to selectmen about the status of the $2.75 million payment, and for that reason had selectmen, including Chairman Patrick Ahearn, appear at the meeting Tuesday. Selectmen said the development agreement falls under their purview and that they would handle negotiations on it, according to Malster.

Ahearn could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Doherty said the development agreement has a number of provisions, not just the Planning Board schedule. "We'll work things out on the development agreement with the selectmen," he said.

Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.