Westwood Wegmans

It appears the legislative wrangling that has been stalling activity on Beacon Hill since August is finally over. This afternoon, Westwood's home rule petition to allow an off-premises beer and wine license for potential Westwood Station tenant Wegmans, was passed in the House after Canton Representative Galvin dropped his objections.

The home rule petition, designed to entice New York-based Wegmans to anchor the Westwood Station development, was originally approved at Westwood's Town Meeting this Spring and has been a thorny problem for Representative Paul McMurtry of Dedham ever since. After introducing the bill and failing to get approval during the regular session, the bill seemed headed for an easy adoption during the informal session--home rule petitions are seldom contested. However Representative Scacia of Readville, in an effort to protect local supermarket Roche Brothers from competition by Wegmans, refused to support the measure prompting McMurtry to daily question quorum in the House until a compromise was worked out. Westwood residents held a special town meeting and approved additional licenses to provide the opportunity for other businesses in town to apply for beer/wine licenses.

At this point, Representative Scacia of Canton stepped up and blocked the measure because of concerns about traffic in Canton that would be exacerbated by the Westwood Station development.