Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

The big zoning redo

Boston had its Big Dig, the massive civil engineering project that rerouted an elevated highway and built a new tunnel — a project that took 15 years to complete, not including planning. The Town of North East has its Big Zoning Redo, a multi-year project that is nearing the end of an initial phase to update the zoning code to match the vision of the Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2019.

The current zoning code is half a century old, and like all such codes it governs how residents and businesses can use their homes and buildings, and their land. The world has changed since the Seventies — and so will the zoning regulations of the Town of North East if amendments proposed by a working committee of volunteers are accepted by the town board in the near future.

Supervisor Chris Kennan put it succinctly at a special meeting of the board last week, remarking that the adoption of the amendments to zoning could stand as the most significant of all accomplishments of the current board.

The Zoning Review Committee is made up of six volunteers: Edie Greenwood, chair, and Dale Culver, Julie Schroeder, Ed Downey, Bill Kish and Dave Sherman. The work of the group was assisted not only by the board itself but by guidance from professional consultants including Nan Stolzenberg and Will Agresta, two community planners well known in their field. Town Attorney Warren Replansky also pored over the committee’s recommendations, sharing insights as well his extensive experience with other towns that have navigated zoning waters past and present.

Kennan applauded the committee, and thanked them for their service. He wanted the record to show that this group, which was formed four-plus years ago, has met “in something like 100 meetings with the same six members all the way through. That’s pretty amazing,” he said.

The importance of the review this group has undertaken cannot be underestimated. At the outset, a complete overhaul of the code was considered too ambitious, so the committee was advised to keep its focus largely on the Commercial District, which runs along Route 44 to the Connecticut border. Residential and land conservation districts have been included to a varying degrees, but are to be considered later.

The Town Board has met several times this year specifically to discuss and debate the committee’s proposed amendments. At the most recent meeting on Aug. 26, Town Attorney Replansky began to walk through the proposed changes from A to Z, engaging the board with questions and comment as he turned page after page of PDF printouts. It took nearly two hours and he didn’t even finish. That’s how much is involved. The board plans to continue to hear the town attorney’s observations at its next board meeting on Sept. 11.

What eventually will follow is a public hearing for the community to comment and ask questions. No date has yet been set for such a hearing, but it is likely around the corner. It’s prudent to pay attention to the proposed amendments because the resulting code will shape how our community will grow in the years ahead. They will have something to say about housing, commercial activity, parking and many other life activities that shape what a community, including what it looks like. In the minutiae of these amendments there is a vision for the community’s future as envisioned by the Comprehensive Plan — created with the input of many residents, business and community leaders, and elected and appointed officials.

Latest News

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notice

Notice of Formation of Kaits Kleaning LLC. Art. Of Org. filed with SSNY on 05-22-2026. Office Lo-cation: Dutchess county. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 24 Attlebury Hill Road, Standfordville NY 12581.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tenmile Distillery is making history the old-fashioned way

Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.

D.H. Callahan

In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.

Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

Belinda Sinclair

Dean Chamberlain
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.

Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.

Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.

Keep ReadingShow less

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

Renée Fleming, Andris Nelsons and Thomas Hampson.

Hilary Scott

On Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” The piece, performed earlier this year in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, is a highlight of a program that also includes “Meditations on Grace” (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, and the melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry, as well as for her advocacy for the powerful impact of the creative arts in health. Hampson has long been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time and has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. Both performed in “Nixon in China” earlier this year at the Paris Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano.

Keep ReadingShow less
Local playwright revisits Revolutionary moment in “Rebel Town”

The cast and crew of “Rebeltown: The Musical.”

Jack Sheedy

John Alan Segalla was working in Boston a few years ago, giving historic tours at the site of the Boston Tea Party. Now, as America celebrates 250 years as a nation, the Canaan native is about to debut a new version of his original musical, “Rebel Town,” inspired largely by the Boston Tea Party, the protest that helped launch the American Revolution.

“It wasn’t until I got to Boston and learned the Tea Party story that I fell in love with this moment in history, and I saw the story as wildly compelling and very important, and really a story that was very misunderstood, mistaught in schools,” Segalla said at a recent rehearsal in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ahead of the show’s July 10 opening.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.