Development plans for Westwood Station remain up in the air, as both developers and town officials lack a definitive plan.
The town may not know anything for sure until the end of the year about whether the project will move ahead as proposed or if changes will cause the town to look at permits again, said Greg Garber of the town's Community Development Department at a Planning Board meeting Tuesday.
But Garber stressed that the town should waste no time in preparing for developers to restart the project.
"We don't want them to walk through the door and have all kinds of issues with permitting," he said. "We should be prepared when and if they return."
Planners weren't sure whether the the effort required to go through all the permitting again should be made now on a project that may not even go any further.
Ambitious plans for the massive project call for, ultimately, 4.5 million square feet of retail, residential, hotel and office space on 135 acres near Rte. 128 and the MBTA station. If its promise were fulfilled, Westwood Station would bring thousands of jobs to the region, and expand Westwood's tax base and population, officials have said.
But the project was stymied by last year's financial crisis and the freeze of credit markets, which remain tight. Westwood Station's first phase - totaling about 1.1 million square feet - has been estimated to cost about $700 million.
Work on the University Avenue site stopped over the winter as the developer focused on finding a construction loan and making its case to the federal and state governments for funding.
Board member Robert Malster said before any work is done on the town's end he would like to see a written plan from developers, so planners can then decide how to deal with the project.
"Where's our strategic plan?" said Malster. "That sounds like a ton to undertake. You can't put a timeline on something if you don't know what you're doing."
Planning Board member Steven Rafsky said the town would need to move relatively quickly to approve plans for the developers who are looking to secure stimulus money from the state. "This thing is fragile, and time is our enemy," he said.
Planning Board Chairman Steven Olanoff said the town needs the builder to come to it with a plan. "They need to come in with a project, not a project in development," he said.
