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.