By Paul McMorrow
Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer

Opponents of Canton’s Westwood Station development took another hit Monday when a Suffolk County Superior Court judge tossed out a lawsuit that had sought to delay the project and overturn environmental and traffic certifications.

Judge Judith Fabricant ruled that the suit, brought by the town of Canton, ran afoul of the statute of limitations. Fabricant ordered the town of Canton to pay all legal fees for the defendants, the Mass Highway Department and developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes (CCF).

“We’re very pleased, obviously,” said CCF President Jay Doherty. “It’s a vindication of the process. We’re well past three and a half years of regulatory oversight. This puts everything to rest with respect to anything on the permit side. It’s now up to Canton whether they continue to press their case politically.”

The town filed suit in late October, asking for judicial review of the state highway and environmental permitting process, citing traffic concerns posed by the development.  Permitting began in 2005, Doherty said, and was re-completed in 2007, at Canton’s request. That review, chaired by state Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen, backed the state’s earlier findings on Westwood Station’s environmental and traffic impacts.

Last Thursday, State Rep. William Galvin of Canton released a long-stalled bill granting a beer and wine license to Westwood Station’s retail anchor, Wegmans. Late Friday, his Senate counterpart, Brian Joyce, put a hold on the bill in the legislature’s upper chamber. It is unclear whether Joyce will block the Wegmans bill when it comes up for Senate approval Thursday. The senator could not be immediately reached for comment. State Sen. Marian Walsh, the bill’s senate sponsor, has called for an end to using the license dispute as a proxy for the traffic debate, calling on the legislature to “honor and acknowledge the request of the people of Westwood.”