MILLERTON — The Millerton Zoning Board of Appeals rejected two variance requests for 7-9 Main Street with a unanimous vote on Tuesday, June 3.
The decision closes the book on a process that began more than two years ago when building plans were first submitted to the board seeking to increase the building’s allowable residential density and waive parking requirements.
The latest rejection followed a public hearing on May 6, during which architect Ray Nelson of Earthwise Architecture in Millerton presented revised 9-unit and 6-unit proposals — both scaled down from the original 12-unit plan. The applications were reviewed under village zoning code, which requires at least 5,000 square feet of lot area per unit and 1.5 parking spaces per unit — standards the updated plans still did not meet.
“I think this is a mistake,” said Nelson, who has represented the building’s owner, Gvkgne Realty Inc., in front of the zoning board since 2023. “The village wants more apartments.”
“We are constrained to the zoning laws as written,” board member Ed Stillman said, emphasizing that the board’s role is not to decide what’s best in theory, but to apply the law as it exists.
Nelson disagreed, arguing, “Your job, in my opinion, is to rectify an onerous zoning law. We know the zoning law needs to be changed.”
The Village of Millerton Zoning Board of Appeals met on Tuesday, June 3 to decide on a 7-9 Main Street case. Photo by Aly Morrissey
At the start of the meeting, the board entered an unplanned executive session to review new information, followed by a required State Environmental Quality Review. In a roll-call vote, the board determined the requested variances would not result in significant environmental harm.
The board then worked through its formal Record of Findings, applying five legal criteria meant to balance the applicant’s needs with potential impacts on the community. These included whether the project would change the character of the neighborhood or harm nearby properties, if alternative options were considered, the magnitude of the variances requested, potential environmental and community impacts, and whether the applicant’s difficulty was self-created.
While board members acknowledged that added density and new apartments could benefit the village, they concluded that the proposed variances were too substantial, the parking impact would be negative, and that the applicant failed to do proper due diligence regarding zoning laws before purchasing the property.
“Considering the factors in the Record of Findings, and weighing the benefit to the applicant versus the health, safety, and well-being of the neighbors in our community, we deny the applications for the two variances,” said Stillman.
As for next steps, he noted that there would be paperwork to complete but confirmed the “matter is closed.”
The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Celebrating its 45th year, the Grumbling Gryphons will perform at HVRHS Friday, Aug. 1, at 7 p.m.
“We’re a touring company that is participatory,” Elias said with her trademark storytelling cadence. “Even when there’s no pre-performance workshop, it’s still participatory. Always.”
Founded in 1980 “in a little basement apartment on the lower east side with co-founder Vanessa Roe,” said Elias,Grumbling Gryphons (recipients of the 2003 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award) has long occupied a unique niche: part performance troupe, part educational outreach, part community ritual. Whether dramatizing Greek myths, Native American legends, or original tales about bees and bogs, the company’s ethos centers on inclusion, transformation, and hands-on engagement.
This summer’s camp offers children ages six and up five fast-paced days of storytelling, acting, mask-making, and rehearsal. The first three days will take place at Elias’s own home studio — a tucked-away space filled with costumes, puppets, and instruments — before moving into full performance prep mode.
“In the ideal world, we would have more time,” she laughed. “It’s a lot of pressure to be performing for the public after five days. But we’re going to do our best.”
The gala performance, she explained, is a kind of theatrical mosaic — scenes and excerpts from Grumbling Gryphons’ vast repertoire, some showcasing seasoned adult performers and others giving campers center stage. The cast will include returning campers, newcomers, and guest artists drawn from the Gryphons’ decades-spanning circle of collaborators including mask maker and artist Ellen Moon.
“We’re still figuring out exactly what we’ll do,” said Elias, “but it’s kind of like a smorgasbord… a celebration. And it’s open — if anybody wants to get their kids involved, or even volunteer, we welcome you.”
Photo provided
Elias’s own theater background winds through early improvisational schools, Viennese dance traditions, and experimental spaces like Henry Street Settlement. As a child on Long Island, she studied with jazz pianist Ivan Fiedel and dancer Rosalind Fiedel, eccentric mentors who nurtured her taste for the surreal and spontaneous.
“Mr. Fiedel was a character,” she recalled. “He would smoke a cigar… and take the cigar in his ear and the smoke would come out the other end. I don’t know how he did it.”
Elias built Grumbling Gryphons with this sense of magic — not as a traditional company, but as a living, evolving story in itself. Whether working with preschoolers or middle-schoolers, audiences in botanical gardens or historic town halls, the Gryphons invite kids to become creators — to chant, to improvise, to embody archetypes from ancient lore or environmental parables.
And that’s what this summer’s camp and gala are all about. “It’s more than theater,” Elias said. “It’s myth, poetry, movement — it’s about building self-esteem, imagination. It’s about transformation.”
For more information, to register a child for the 2025 Summer Theater Camp, or to inquire about volunteering, visit grumblinggryphons.org
