MassBay Community College Proposed Land Disposition

 January 2026 Update 

Following the postponement of the Town-wide visioning study planned for December 8, 2025, in late December, State Representative Alice Peisch and State Senator Cynthia Creem invited Town and Commonwealth officials to a meeting at the Massachusetts State House. Participants included Secretary Edward Augustus of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC), Commissioner Adam Baacke from the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), Select Board Chair Marjorie Freiman, Executive Director Meghan Jop, and Assistant Executive Director Corey Testa, Mass Bay President David Podell, Mass Bay Board of Trustees Chair Ilissa Povich, and several staff members. The goal of the meeting was to address the Town’s questions regarding the process of designating and selling the designated parcel at 40 Oakland Street for housing under the Commonwealth’s Affordable Homes Act (AHA).

Our state legislators indicated to Secretary Augustus and Commissioner Baacke that they fully support and stand behind the Town. They shared the Town’s top priority of protecting the 40 acres of forest land on the parcel, as well as serious concerns about the proposed density of the project, severe traffic limitations both on Oakland Street and Route 9, and questions about maintaining MassBay parking at any potential development site on the remaining acreage under the AHA. Marjorie Freiman indicated that the Select Board intended to pursue all options to protect the interests of the Town, its residents, and visitors to the 40-acre forested site. She raised several additional issues about which the Town had asked questions of EOHLC and DCAMM staff and not received answers, or received conflicting responses, posed questions about the provisions within, and the implementation of, the AHA, and also inquired about the timeline for the promulgation of regulations under the AHA.        

Marjorie explained that the assumptions under which the Select Board had scheduled a Town-wide visioning session no longer appeared valid based on conflicting information or unanswered questions, and that the Board could not convene the visioning as long as the Town’s role in the process was not clear – or even whether the Commonwealth might consider the wishes of the residents resulting from that visioning session. Secretary Augustus and the Commonwealth requested that the Town send a letter detailing its questions and areas of concern. 

 Over recent weeks, the Select Board engaged the law firm of Phillips & Angley to work with Town Counsel to identify areas of initial inquiry and discuss overall strategy on this process. The Town sent the letter to the Commonwealth on January 9, 2026, the date requested by EOHLC. 

Read the full letter to EOHLC from the Town of Wellesley to see the breadth of issues addressed and the detail of the questions posed. Currently, the Town is waiting to receive the Commonwealth’s responses, and the Select Board will continue to update the community as this situation goes forward. 

Please direct questions or comments to OaklandStreet@wellesleyma.gov