Sunderland Zoning Board Schedules June 30 Hearing as Dollar General Reviews Near Completion

WHATELY -- June 3, 2026, Sunderland's Zoning Board of Appeals held its 13th consecutive session on a Dollar General special permit application, hearing sharp resident opposition and scheduling a June 30 follow-up hearing. The board, reviewing an application by Colleto Development Group of Torrington, Connecticut to build a 9,100-square-foot retail store at Route 116 and Clark Mountain Road, received a traffic study peer review report the day before the meeting and will formally take it up on June 30 at 6:30 p.m., alongside results from a June 1 soil excavation. Sunderland resident Will Sillen presented a revised letter arguing that Criterion 1 of the special permit process, addressing social, economic, and community needs, must be weighed rigorously, citing a survey in which 234 Sunderland residents said the store would not serve the town's needs versus 22 who said it would, and a list of 296 Dollar General regulatory violations totaling $92 million in penalties. Residents Janelle Callahan and Carrie Klein cited a March 3, 2026 pedestrian injury on Route 116 near the proposed site and argued the applicant's traffic study lacks a multimodal safety analysis. Town counsel clarified that the board's written decision must address eight special permit criteria, potentially one more than previously understood after a 2024 Annual Town Meeting amendment, with no single criterion ranked above the others.