Capital Improvement Planning Committee proposes $8.3M

The Capital Improvement Planning Committee has proposed an $8.3 million capital budget for fiscal 2027 – lower than both departmental requests and prior projections – marking a significant departure from the Town Manager’s draft five-year capital plan from December.
In the CIPC’s Jan. 20 report for fiscal year 2027–31, the 26 high- and medium-high priority projects totaling $8.3 million were selected from the the Finance Committee’s capital plan for FY27. For FY26, they prioritized capital prior to the creation of the CIPC. In the previous five-year plan, $14.7 million has been budgeted for FY2027.
The $53.4 million in FY2027 capital requests originated from the initial capital submissions submitted by department heads for the capital improvement process (CIP) compiled by the Town Manager and Finance Director before they reviewed and prioritized the list. The $53.4 million includes the $38.6 million MWRA connection and the Happy Hollow wells permanent FAS treatment facility upgrade project.
While the CIPC supports the MWRA project and recommends it for approval by voters as a separate Town Meeting article, the committee excluded it from summary comparisons because of its size and funding structure. The project is expected to be financed through water enterprise fund borrowing, meaning the cost would likely fall on ratepayers rather than through property taxes.
Excluding the MWRA project, revised FY2027 requests totaled $14.8 million. The CIPC’s $8.3 million recommendation reflects a more constrained approach shaped by capital policy guidelines and concern over the town’s backlog of unfinished projects. As of November 2025, 141 capital projects remained open with approximately $22.6 million in unexpended appropriations, according to the report.
The most notable difference from the prior plan involves Town Building repairs. The earlier capital plan anticipated $5.7 million in FY2027 for Town Building projects as a separate article. Although updated estimates increased those needs to $6.2 million, roughly $5.2 million has been deferred beyond FY2027.
Instead, the committee prioritized projects members ranked as urgent, including $2 million for a new high school septic system and $2.5 million in earlier requests for Phase III high school stadium improvements (JV and varsity baseball diamond design and construction), though the stadium project was not included in the final FY2027 recommendation.
Assuming a $114.6 million preliminary General Fund operating budget (per Select Board materials from Jan. 4), plus $6.7 million projected enterprise fund budgets, the General Fund totals approximately $121.3 million.
The committee’s plan aligns more tightly with adopted capital and debt policies, which cap annual overall capital spending at 4–7% of the operating budget (target range $4.85 million to $8.49 million) and non-debt capital spending at 2–4% of the General Fund (target range: $2.43 million to $4.85 million).
Capital debt service means paying the annual principal and interest payments on borrowing. Debt policy is set for within-the-levy capital debt service at 3–5% of General Fund (target range $3.64 million to $6.07 million) and a total capital debt service of 6–8% of operating budget (target range $7.28 million to $9.70 million) keeping below a maximum of 10% or less than $12.1 million.
The recommended FY2027 budget fits within those targets, assuming a preliminary operating budget of approximately $121.3 million.
Under the town’s bylaw, the CIPC develops and submits a capital improvement program to the Town Manager, who then incorporates recommendations into the town’s proposed capital budget. The committee said it intends to issue an amended multi-year plan for FY2028–31 after further review, noting that its first year of operation and late-breaking revisions limited long-range planning. The full 36-page report with all the project rankings can be found at tinyurl.com/wayland_CIPC.