RTM Members Visit Historic Design District Buildings

With the possibility a zoning amendment recently approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission will be invalidated by the Representative Town Meeting, a handful of RTM members visited buildings in the town's Historic Design District zone Monday.

The amendment would permit office space to be installed on the ground floor of the National Hall building, which is one of five buildings in the historic district. National Hall is currently occupied on all but its ground floor by an opulent hotel called the Inn at National Hall.

The real estate investment company Greenfield Partners LLC of Norwalk is under contract to buy four of the district's five buildings. It has announced it intends to close the inn and convert the entire National Hall building into its headquarters.

The four buildings were purchased from Greenfield Partners in 2006 by Antares NH LLC, a Stamford real estate firm that has suffered severe financial problems as a result of the worldwide downturn in real estate values.

The P&Z Commission approved the zoning amendment in December at the request of Greenfield Partners. However, last Wednesday an RTM committee voted 8 to 0 to recommend the commission's approval of the amendment be overturned.

The full RTM will review the committee's recommendation Wednesday evening and then vote on it. At least 24 of the RTM's 36 members would need to vote in favor of the recommendation to overturn approval of the zoning amendment.

During the RTM members' visit, the inn's operations manager, Marco Degl'Innocenti, said when the inn was operating at capacity, it was a successful business with sufficient income to cover the cost of running it. Greenfield Partners has said it needs to close the inn because it's in a location where it could not succeed.

The photographs were taken during Monday's visit.