The Swellesley Report

Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Wellesley Select Board refining Special Town Meeting motion language on MassBay land plans

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The Wellesley Select Board on Monday night will continue to refine wording of motions regarding the sale and development of state-owned land at MassBay Community College (40 Oakland St.) to be presented at Special Town Meeting on May 11. It will also convene in executive session (behind closed doors) at the start of its meeting “to conduct strategy with respect to potential litigation regarding 40 Oakland Street.”

(See Wellesley Media recording of April 23 meeting.)

The board last week approved article language for Special Town Meeting, presenting a choice between pursuing litigation or negotiating with the state, with the option of doing something in between based on motion language to come. Later in the week, the board held an initial session to hash out draft motion language. The board had presented the approved article language to the appointed Advisory Committee, which vets Town Meeting articles, on April 22 (see Wellesley Media recording), and got food for thought on the motions from questions raised there.

At the April 23 Select Board meeting, Town Counsel Tom Harrington presented the board with draft motion language, and then board members Kenny Largess and Beth Sullivan Woods shared working drafts of alternative motions.

The town on April 27 posted the three-article warrant for the May 11 Special Town Meeting

Modeling civil discourse for Town Meeting, the Select Board discussed possible alternative motions, seeking to find a way to get clear (non-binding) guidance from Town Meeting on the controversial matter of the state seeking to have a developer build 180 units of housing across from the MassBay Campus adjacent to the forest that abuts—and essentially blends into—the town-owned Centennial Reservation. The state is taking its action under the Affordable Homes Act designed to help address the Commonwealth’s housing shortage.

The state’s plans to sell MassBay property deemed “surplus”—roughly five acres of parking lot, roughly 40 acres of forest—has sparked concerns from neighbors and users of the adjacent Centennial Reservation as well as enthusiasm from those who say the state’s plans could lead to needed housing, protections for the forest, and improvements at MassBay.

As discussion has progressed at recent Select Board meetings, talk has focused on possible development on 7-8 acres including the parking lot and surrounding area, based on conversations with state leaders. Draft motion language from the town counsel seeks to ensure that if Town Meeting directs Wellesley to negotiate with the state, that the state adheres to Wellesley bylaws related to environmental protection and affordable housing, and pledges to convey a permanent conservation restriction to the town for land not developed.

The town plans to post the final warrant to the town website soon after it is finalized.

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Town government meetings for week of April 27, 2026: More on MassBay land plans; New condo, apartment & townhome projects

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A sampling of Wellesley, Mass., meetings and agenda items for the week of April 27, 2026.

Planning Board (April 27, 6:30pm, online)

Projects of Significant Impact at 592 Washington Street (condos) and 26 Washington Street  (bank); 2026 Fall Special Town Meeting Potential Article Discussion; RIO Task Force Dissolution Discussion & Vote; Lower Falls Area Study Discussion

Select Board (April 27, 6:30pm, town hall)

Executive Session: M.G.L. c. 30A, § 21(a)(3), to conduct strategy with respect to potential litigation regarding 40 Oakland Street; Discuss May 2026 Special Town Meeting Motion Language Regarding the Sale and Development of the State-Owned Land Located at 40 Oakland Street • Vote May 11, 2026, Special Town Meeting Warrant

Design Review Board (April 29, 6:30pm, online)

Rani Mahal restaurant sign (27 Grove); Sit Still Kids Salon sign (Linden Square); Major construction at 10 Railroad St. (townhomes) and 16 Laurel Ave. (apartments)

Advisory Committee (April 29, 6:30pm, town hall)

Public hearing on Special Town Meeting (about MassBay land plans)

Natural Resources Commission (April 30, 7pm, town hall)

Morses Pond Beach and Bathhouse Update; Tree hearings; Discuss state draft regulations and MassBay ▪ Discuss Special Town Meeting

Climate Action Committee (May 1, 8am, town hall and online)

Agenda to come

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Planning

Wellesley Lower Falls area to get a study of its own

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The Wellesley Planning Board earlier this month discussed commissioning a visioning study of the Lower Falls Village area, which is ripe for redevelopment in light of large properties changing hands already or expected to before long (see Wellesley Media recording of the April 13 Planning Board meeting, about 10 minutes in). It’s also a challenging area in that it is nearby major highways and plagued by traffic.

This study would be separate, but related to, recent studies like the Strategic Housing Plan and future ones, like a new Comprehensive Plan. A draft request for proposals (RFP) is in the works, and served as a jumping off point for the April 13 discussion (the study could cost up to $50k). A study of this area was conducted in the 1990s.

Brad Downey, interim planning director, said in a follow-up email exchange that “The genesis of this particular study is the result of a few factors: increased activity and involvement from neighbors on future development in the Lower Falls area following the two RIOs proposed at Fall 2024 Town Meeting, as well as the pending sale of many of the Haynes Management properties in that area, which are to be sold to another property owner, likely for redevelopment. The increased neighborhood interest as well as increased likelihood of future development were the two key factors the Planning Board had in mind when considering this study.”

It remains to be seen how soon the RFP will be finalized and issued. Asked about a timeline for issuing the RFP, Downey said at the meeting that “I don’t think there is a particular rush.”)

It can be challenging to keep track of what’s coming up at Wellesley town government meetings. We try to help by posting an agenda preview each week that highlights items we think might be of interest, as we did with this study (See: “Wellesley town government meetings for week of April 13, 2026: Town Meeting debriefs; Lower Falls Area Study Discussion”). Sign up for our free weekday email newsletter to stay plugged in.

The funding for this project comes from the Planning Department operating budget, which typically includes $50,000 each year for retaining professional services, such as planning consulting services to conduct studies.

Toward the beginning of the Planning Board’s discussion, member Jim Roberti shared a map of the Lower Falls area (to be defined as part of the RFP process) to illustrate the hodgepodge of zoning districts within this part of town. There’s business, industrial, Lower Falls Village, Residential Incentive Overlay (RIO), and other zoning in the area covering Walnut, River, and Washington Streets.

Lower falls zoning
Lower Falls zoning map

 
This section of Wellesley has been at the epicenter of discussions at Town Meeting and beyond in recent years about RIOs due to proposed multi-family housing projects that many neighbors opposed for density, traffic, and other reasons. Also, arguments were made that efforts to eliminate RIOs from some parts of town might unfairly burden other parts, namely Lower Falls (Annual Town Meeting recently voted to eliminate RIOs from all districts, not including the four previously approved RIO projects).

In discussing the proposed Lower Falls study, Roberti said “I guess the question’s going to come: Why are we doing this? Are we doing it to restrict this area so less things can be developed? Or are we doing it to regulate what’s going to be built or are we going to encourage more to be built?” Roberti said he’d also been asked about whether Planning envisions doing traffic studies, and he wondered about whether funding would even be available for that.

Board member Ed Chazen asked how this study might fit with a broader Comprehensive Plan the town plans to undertake (it failed to get funding at Annual Town Meeting, but proponents will be back with another request). The Comprehensive Plan would succeed the dated Unified Plan, a long-range vision for future land use, development, and growth across town. The Planning Board’s Tom Taylor said he’d see the Lower Falls plan as being more detailed, getting into issues like traffic flow and parking (maybe turning parking lanes into traffic lanes during certain hours, like in Wellesley Hills, or decking the municipal parking lot on River Street).

“The elephant in the room is the Haynes property that sits right through the middle of this,” Taylor said. “We can have all sorts of great ideas and they can just say forget it, I’m going to build by right…”

Chazen urged that the town get into conversations with the big property owners in the area sooner than later to help ensure that this gateway into town is developed thoughtfully. While many properties are owned by Haynes, or have been sold by Haynes to others, there are also other established property owners in the area (such as at 1 Washington St. along the Charles River) that would need to be looped in.

Roberti pointed out that this a “commercial/business/industrial area that butts right up to a residential area…and I think one of the problems with the RIO is that there wasn’t enough buffer between the improved or changed use and the current residential.”

The board talked as well about needing to get neighborhood input in advance of issuing the RFP and/or as part of the study.

This study would roll out even as new developments proceed in Lower Falls, including a multi-family housing complex at 49 Walnut St., and a First Citizens Bank branch at 26 Washington St. where Taylor Rental used to be.

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Legal Notice

Town of Wellesley: 2026 Special Town Meeting

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The Select Board will convene a Special Town Meeting on Monday, May 11, at 7:00 P.M at the Wellesley High School Auditorium, 50 Rice Street. The Warrant for the Special Town Meeting will close at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, April 24, 2026.

Any person desiring to have an article included in the Warrant for the Special Town Meeting shall submit a petition signed by not less than one hundred (100) registered voters of the Town. Any such petition shall be submitted to the Town Clerk for signature verification.

After being signed by the Select Board, the full text of the Special Town Meeting Warrant will be available from the Select Board Office located at 525 Washington Street and will be posted at the Town Clerk’s Office at 525 Washington Street, Police Station at 485 Washington Street and on the Town’s website (www.wellesleyma.gov).

Motions to be offered to the Special Town Meeting must be submitted digitally to the Select Board Office at sel@wellesleyma.gov by 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

WELLESLEY SELECT BOARD

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Wellesley Select Board approves Special Town Meeting article language on MassBay land plans

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The Wellesley Select Board on Tuesday approved language for a Special Town Meeting article regarding the state’s proposed sale of land at MassBay Community College to support the creation of 180 housing units and partially fund future upgrades on the MassBay campus (see Wellesley Media recording).

The board is set to make a presentation about the article at the Advisory Committee on Wednesday, April 2s at 6:30pm, and then reconvene for a Select Board meeting on Thursday, April 23 at 6:30pm to discuss the motion language under the article.

The Select Board, on the heels of the latest communication from the state regarding the future of 45 acres of MassBay property, last week called for a Special Town Meeting on May 11 where the issue will be addressed. The state’s plans to sell MassBay property deemed “surplus”—roughly five acres of parking lot, roughly 40 acres of forest—has sparked concerns from neighbors and users of the adjacent Centennial Reservation as well as enthusiasm from those who say the state’s plans could lead to needed housing, protections for the forest, and improvements at MassBay.

The Select Board’s plan for Special Town Meeting is to put a non-binding question or questions to Wellesley’s elected legislators to gauge what course they and their constituents would like the town to take on the MassBay land matter.

Article 2 language reads as follows:

To see if the Town will vote to advise the Select Board to take the following actions:

A. Pursue an agreement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts wherein the Town will accept the construction of 180 units of housing on and around the parking lot at 40 Oakland Street on approximately 7 to 8 acres of land in exchange for a permanent conservation restriction for passive recreation on the remaining 37 to 38 acres of land at that location; or

B. Pursue litigation against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seeking a declaration that some or all of the land located at 40 Oakland Street is not legally available for housing use, and seeking to limit, to the greatest extent feasible, the amount of housing that may be constructed on any portion of the property determined to be eligible for such use; or to take any other action in relation thereto

Town Counsel Tom Harrington presented the draft article language. The Select Board has been meeting behind closed doors for months with attorneys to explore possible litigation over the MassBay matter (the board has also provided public updates and allowed for public comment).

Select Board member Kenny Largess, one of numerous lawyers at Town Hall that night, proposed broader language, fearing that the draft language from Harrington was too narrow. He described a scenario where people who might not be inclined to vote for negotiating with the state might feel forced to do so without having a real sense of how litigation might go. Harrington assured that Town Meeting members would be able to make motions that focused on something in between the goalposts set out in the article language.

Beth Sullivan Woods favored the Largess proposal, and took exception to specifying acreage amounts in the language.

“This sets up a premise that it’s fight the definition of ‘surplus’ or agree that 180 is the right number,” she said. “I have never heard from this community that 180 units on the parking lot is acceptable to anyone…”

Board Chair Marjorie Freiman said that what she has heard from the public over the past year is that the town’s priority is protecting the forest.

“If we can get 37 or 38 acres can we live with the result?” she asked. “Well, that’s essentially the question, that’s the bottom line question. What’s your priority? What are you willing to live with? What are you willing to risk? What are you willing to give up?”

Board member Tom Ulfelder backed the language from Harrington, arguing that it “sharpens the debate.” He stated, “that stark difference between [A and B] is exactly what we want the community and Town Meeting to understand. That we don’t have fine gradations of the state’s offer realistically in front of us that we can push forward. Board member Colette Aufranc also supported the original article draft language, seeing it as “not binary, there’s a sliding scale” within the parameters.

Freiman emphasized a reason for holding Special Town Meeting on May 11 and keeping it to one night is that it will give the town a chance to hit the state’s May 13 deadline for submitting comments on the disposition and reuse of the property at 40 Oakland St. “We don’t want to lose the opportunity to respond to the state within the time that they have given us. Again, they are the state and we’re the town…”

Wellesley Conservation Land Trust retains counsel to protect MassBay forest

Separately, the non-profit Wellesley Conservation Land Trust (WCLT) has retained Hill Law “to represent its interests in matters relating to the MassBay Community College Forest. Among other reasons, WCLT has asked Counsel to determine whether that land is protected under Article 97, which guarantees for all the ‘right to a clean environment including its natural, scenic, historical, and aesthetic qualities for the citizens of the Commonwealth.'”

According to the group, “At this time, WCLT is focused on evaluating the situation and supporting efforts aligned with its mission. The organization remains committed to working constructively with stakeholders and will provide updates as appropriate.”

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Wellesley Select Board, School Committee separately debrief on Annual Town Meeting

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The Wellesley Select Board and School Committee each debriefed a week after the conclusion of Annual Town Meeting, the first in decades that featured separately voted on town and school budgets. The budget presentations, discussion, and voting took place on the second night of Town Meeting, and went smoothly.

Select Board members who commented at their April 14 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording) said they thought the separation of the budgets worked well, and Executive Director Meghan Jop said that now that a process for doing so has been put in place, it should be easier to collect the necessarily information on shared service breakouts, etc.

Board Chair Marjorie Freiman said “for me, because [school] enrollment is dynamic, and we’re always going to have an examination of shared costs and direct costs, I liked seeing them separately. So I would support keeping the two budgets in separate motions…”

Beth Sullivan Woods agreed, saying that having the separate school and town budget presentations provides “a good chance to take a break and talk and then let people focus on the next thing.”

Board member Colette Aufranc also supported the separate budget presentations, though wondered how handling this would go for town staff going forward. Jop said “now that we have allocated how we would break up the budget based upon particular line items… I think it’s easier to employ,” adding that forms are in place now and people know how to fill them out.

There was some discussion of whether or not it would be a good idea to have additional departmental updates shared at Town Meeting, where one goal has been to make the legislative sessions more efficient. The board discussed doing a better job of letting Town Meeting members and others know when departmental leaders are sharing updates with the board. This would complement Swellesley’s weekly previews on town government meeting agendas and reports on departmental updates, such as from the fire and police chiefs.

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The Select Board also discussed Town Meeting attendance (we’re working to get this from the town clerk, though the voting scorecards posted by the town give you much of this), audio/visual issues, and the order in which the Town-Wide Financial Plan is presented during Town Meeting. The plan this year had been to present the Town-Wide Financial Plan on night #2, ahead of the town and school budget presentations, but it got moved up to night #1 after members requested it be aired ahead of any appropriations-related motions.

The School Committee and School Department, which had earlier expressed reservations about moving away from an omnibus budget to separate town and school ones, also debriefed on April 14 about Town Meeting (see Wellesley Media recording, about 1 hour, 33 minutes in).

School Committee Chair Niki Ofenloch said she was pleased overall with out how things went. “We were not sure how the conversation or the vote would go with the separate motions this year and it seemed like it was pretty much the same as it was in the prior year, just with two votes instead of one,” she said.

New School Committee member Bob Sullivan agreed that things went smoothly at Town Meeting and that the schools’ budget book answered many questions the public had. But in stepping back, he raised a point about lots of potential town and school capital projects putting even more budgetary pressure on schools. He cited concerns raised during Advisory Committee meetings ahead of Town Meeting about student-facing vs. administrative headcount and overall district performance. “It’s going to be incumbent upon us to make sure that we have, particularly in this environment, the support of different constituencies,” he said, noting that not all Advisory members voted favorable action on the school budget. The schools need to ensure the data they have is made understandable.

Costas Panagopoulos, also a new committee member, agreed that the schools will need to focus on justifying any reductions in student-facing positions given the sorts of questions raised along the way (school administrators have spoken of how certain non-student-facing positions are tweeners in that they enable teachers to improve what they do). “Because Town Meeting members can’t look at the school budget line by line and make modifications, we don’t want to create a situation which because they don’t like one small part of this budget they end up voting the whole thing down. We escaped that kind of fate this time around, but that is not necessarily always going to be the case…,” he said, noting that some on Advisory appeared to be fine with the budget overall but not with certain elements of it. (Supt. Dr. David Lussier said later in the meeting that the administration understands the need to bring further clarity to staffing decisions.)

Panagopoulos also pointed to decisions made at Town Meeting on non-school topics (like not funding a Comprehensive Plan) that illustrate “that there’s an appetite in this town for doing certain things, but not all things.” The School Department and School Committee will need to come to Town Meetings with very strong cases for resources they might request, such as for school facilities master planning. “We should be ready for Plan B if [support] does not materialize” in the face of possible large tax increases, he said.

Linda Chow stood by the School Department’s transparency in answering questions about its budget well before Town Meeting, and described the separation of budgets as essentially pitting schools vs. the rest of the town. It also introduces the risk that one or the other budget could get voted down, and the uncertainty of what would happen in such a case, she said.

Annual Town Meeting 2026 recaps:

Up next: 

Wellesley town government meetings for week of April 20, 2026: Special Town Meeting prep

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A sampling of Wellesley, Mass., meetings and agenda items for the week of April 20, 2026—it’s a light week with the Monday holiday and school vacation week.

Select Board (April 21, 6:30pm, town hall)

Special Town Meeting Preparation • Vote to Open Spring 2026 Special Town Meeting Warrant and to Close at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, April 24 • Discuss Draft Article(s)

Advisory Committee (April 22, 6:30pm, town hall)

Presentation of May 2026 STM Warrant Article – Select Board • Non-binding questions about the designation as surplus land and subsequent land disposition of 40 Oakland Street at MassBay Community College

Permanent Building Committee (April 23, 7:30pm)

Hardy & Hunnewell School Solar Project •  Hardy School Project Update •  Warren Building HVAC Project Update •  DPW RDF Administration Building Project Update •  Town Hall Interior Renovation Project Update

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What drought? Wellesley rescinds outdoor watering restrictions

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The drought status for the southeast region of the state that includes Wellesley has been decreased from a Level 2 “significant drought” designation by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to normal conditions. As a result, Wellesley’s Board of Public Works has rescinded one-day per week outdoor watering restrictions that had been in effect since February.

“I’m surprised, I did not see that coming,” Department of Public Works Director Dave Cohen said during the Board of Public Works meeting on April 13.  “I thought that perhaps we would get to a Level 1 [mild drought] but they brought us all the way back to a Level 0.”

drought status

Despite the improved drought status, the Wellesley Water Department still discourages business and property owners from going wild with their water, both for conservation purposes as well as for lawn health. They’re recommending a voluntary conservation program of two outdoor watering days per week, and to irrigate before 9 am and after 5 pm to reduce water loss from evaporation.

You can track your water use via the Water Customer Portal. 

Contact the DPW Water & Sewer Division with questions at (781) 235-7600 extension 3355.

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