The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) is scheduled to hold a public hearing on an industrial firm’s request for a zoning rule change that would create a regulatory mechanism to allow scrap tire storage and recycling in M-1 (Industrial) zones under the terms of the P&Z’s special permit process.

The P&Z hearing on the proposed zoning rule change is slated for 7:30 pm on Thursday, November 6, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

Maak Environmental Corporation, which lists its address as 40 High Bridge Road, Sandy Hook, is seeking the rule change. If such a rule change is approved, the firm would then submit a zoning application to the P&Z for a special permit to conduct for such scrap tire storage and recycling at 40 High Bridge Road.

The 59,000-square-foot industrial building there which was built in 1965 formerly housed Make-A-Home Foundation, Inc, which has moved its operations to Waterbury.

The six-acre site with M-1 zoning is on the south side of High Bridge Road between its intersections with Strawberry Lane and New Lebbon Road.

The zoning rule proposal scheduled for discussion at the November 6 public hearing is somewhat narrower in scope than a regulatory proposal submitted by the firm which had been the subject of a September 18 P&Z public hearing.

At that hearing, P&Z members recommended that Maak revise its proposed rules to make them narrower in scope. P&Z members expressed concerns that that the initial regulatory proposal was too broad, allowing too many kinds of solid waste to be handled.

In its current application to the P&Z for a rule change, Maak states that the tire recycling process would be electromagnetic in nature, stressing that its operations would be pollution-free.