Wellesley Design Review Board Clears Landscaping Overhaul, Four Sign Applications

WELLESLEY -- July 8, 2026, Wellesley Design Review Board unanimously approves landscaping overhaul at former Haynes campus and four sign permits. The board voted 4-0 on all five substantive cases at its July 8 remote meeting, chaired by Juann Khoory. The most substantial item involved Boylston Properties, which purchased the 11.4-acre former Haynes Management campus at 36 and 40 Washington Street in late April; landscape architect Mike D'Angelo of MDLA Architects presented plans for a narrowed 48-foot entry drive with a seven-foot planted island, dark-sky-compliant bollard lighting, two sets of tiered retaining walls of roughly three to three and a half feet to address a five-to-seven-foot rear-grade change, ADA-compliant parking reconfiguration, and new American elm street trees along both buildings. Company president Mark DeShane told the board, "We'll be seeing a lot more of you over the next months and years." The board also approved sign replacements at Bates Elementary School, with a condition tying lettering size to other school signs, at the Wellesley Gateway complex at 112 Worcester Street, and at 287 Linden Street for Cross Insurance, where it required the applicant to reduce the front-entrance sign from 34 inches to 28 inches in height and match street-facing sign materials to the higher-quality raised acrylic letters used above the door.