Town of Canton Announces $35 Million Settlement with Developer, State Over Westwood Station Project

The following is a press release from the Town of Canton:

On August 16, 2013 the Town of Canton Board of Selectmen announced that it reached agreement with Westwood Marketplace Holdings, LLC, the new owner of the University Station development in Westwood, in resolution of its long-standing dispute on the project’s impacts on the Town of Canton.

The agreement was the result of the Board’s continuing efforts and reflected the Board’s commitment to ensure that the project’s impacts on the residents and businesses of the Town of Canton are appropriately addressed.

The Town had been working towards this agreement to address the project’s traffic impacts for over six years. In that time, the project was taken over by Westwood Marketplace, which has committed to a drastic reduction of the size of the project from 4.5 million square feet to 2.1 million square feet, and to have the primary entrance of the project be located off I-95 at Blue Hill Drive, away from Dedham Street.

As part of its agreement Canton will receive roadway improvements at eight intersections in Canton to address project impacts, valued at an estimated $1,370,000, discretionary funds in the amount of $1,350,000 to augment
its roadways and address other municipal improvements, plus other recoveries, estimated to total over $2,800,000.

This includes funding for studies regarding the effects of the project from commercial and other vehicles on Dedham Street and other Canton roads, including the exploration of truck exclusions of a certain size on portions of Dedham Street and Chapman Street.

Under the agreement, Westwood Marketplace is also fully committed to supporting the construction of improvements to the Dedham Street corridor. The developer has acknowledged the importance of such work to the project and the region and pledged to work with the Canton Board of Selectmen to make sure the corridor improvements are constructed, thus limiting a portion of project development to allow that portion to be phased in with the construction of the Dedham Street corridor improvements.

Significantly, the Town has also worked productively with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, and Representative William Galvin to obtain a commitment by the Metropolitan Planning Organization through the Transportation Improvement Program to fund the major infrastructure improvements to the Dedham Street corridor. This work is critical to the Town of Canton and other municipalities because it will help alleviate traffic as it relates to the project in particular and the region in general.

The specific Commonwealth infrastructure commitments include adding an off-ramp from I-95 North to Dedham Street, widening the three bridges over I-95, the MBTA railroad tracks and the Neponset River, and other associated roadway work, signals and sidewalks, having an estimated value in excess of $30,000,000.

Just as important as the value of these infrastructure improvements, the timeline for this work has now been accelerated to as early as 2014 (up from 2020) with completion of the Dedham Street corridor portion anticipated within 2-3 years, helping to attenuate any effects of the project as it is developed.

Based on the reduced size of the project, and the agreement and other commitments that the Board of Selectmen has now obtained from Westwood Marketplace and the Commonwealth, the residents and businesses of the Town of Canton are in a much more secure position, the Board having implemented a framework that better ensures that all major and necessary improvements will be in place to improve traffic conditions throughout Canton and the surrounding area.

For more information or for a copy of the Town’s agreement with Westwood Marketplace, voted by the Board at its public meeting on Tuesday night, please contact William T. Friel, Town Administrator, 781-821- 5000.