By Ed Munster
(May 8, 2026) — Haddam Killingworth News recently received a phone call from a Haddam resident asking if we would be sending a reporter to cover the Haddam Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on May 7, 2026. The answer was, unfortunately, ‘No’. We do not have reporters attending meetings of our town boards and commissions in either Haddam or Killingworth. HK News is non-profit staffed primarily by volunteers and cannot afford to have paid reporters cover meetings. We would love to have volunteers to report on the meetings of the Haddam and Killingworth Boards of Selectmen, Boards of Finance, the RSD 17 Board of Education and the P&Z Commissions. We need your help, so people step up!
This call piqued my interest and I decided to attend the PZC meeting, with the thought that there must be something significant that would be discussed. The “something” was the Commission reviewing a zone change for Killingworth Road (Route 81), north of Dollar General and New Image Auto, from Commercial to Residential.
The PZC pointed out that a recent change in state law gives a business owner in a Commercial zone the right to have up to eight affordable housing units along with the business, and that the town would have no discretion regarding mixed use in this zone. At least six property owners in the area vigorously objected to the zone change.
One property owner, Don Andersen, typical of the others, stated that he bought his property because it was in a Commercial zone and that this change from Commercial to Residential takes away his property rights and devalues his property. PZC Chairman Ed Wallor summarized the discussion by saying that the commission had gotten its answer: that the owners in this neighborhood are happy with the present situation.
In a separate public hearing of the Commission, there was a discussion on the question of allowing a food scraps collection shed at the intersection on Jail Hill Road and Saybrook Road. Linda Talbott presented the proposal from the Haddam Sustainability Committee. Commission members all agreed that the program and the idea were good, but there were many questions and concerns about the potential smell, the maintenance, the attraction of vermin and animals, which Talbott answered. However, the fact that the food scraps shed is being proposed in a National Historic District was the main stumbling block. The Sustainability Committee decided to withdraw its proposal and stated that they would come back to the Commission with a different location to be considered at a future meeting.
Under old business, Commission member Lynne Cooper discussed plans to review and update Haddam’s Plan of Conservation and Development.
