UPDATE: RTM Overturns Historic District Zoning Amendment

The Representative Town Meeting Thursday morning overturned a controversial zoning amendment approved in December by the Planning and Zoning Commission concerning the town's Historic Design District zone.

Following a meeting of more than four hours, the RTM voted 26 to 7 to have the zoning for the HDD revert to its previous form, which forbids office space on the ground floor of the five buildings in the zone.

Invalidating the P&Z Commission's approval of the zoning change -- known as a "text amendment" -- required at least two-thirds of the RTM's 36 members to vote in favor of the reversal.

The zoning amendment was approved by the P&Z Commission in December at the request of Greenfield Partners LLC, a real estate investment firm based in Norwalk. Greenfield requested the change to create enough space in the zone's largest building, called National Hall, to use it as its headquarters.

While the primary issue of dispute in the zoning amendment involved permitting office space on the ground floor of the HDD buildings, the greater concern for many RTM members was that Greenfield Partners' move into National Hall would require closing an elegant hotel on its upper floors called the Inn at National Hall.

Some RTM members Wednesday night said they believed the P&Z Commission was not thorough enough in evaluating the proposed zoning amendment before approving it.

In response, the P&Z's chairman, Ronald D. Corwin, said the commission believed the HDD as zoned made it a "moribund, unsuccessful district," and that by permitting additional office space use, the whole area will be strengthened by bringing tenancy to it.

Corwin also rejected the contention by some RTM members and members of the public that the commission closed its hearing on the amendment before all interested parties had sufficient time to comment on it. He said that before he closed the hearing he asked if anyone else in the room wanted to speak and no one did.

The commission heard an "inequitable and one-sided case," said Dina Berger, whose store, Age of Reason, is across the street from National Hall. "There were many compelling reasons to reject this amendment."

Berger's landlord, however, David Waldman, disagreed, saying he thought the amendment approved by the commission would ultimately be beneficial to creating "vibrancy" in the area around the HDD.

Westport resident Don Bergman said the commissioners' examination of the amendment was too narrow and "they simply did not do the job they could have done."

Noting the difficulty over the years of leasing the HDD buildings for retail, residential or restaurant use, Corwin said "we basically have a failed zone."

The Historic Design District zone is along the west bank of the Saugatuck River, and is bounded by the intersection of Post Road West (Route 1) and Wilton Road (Route 33).

The ground floor of National Hall, which is vacant, was last used as an office for mortgage operations of Washington Mutual bank. The inn remains in business, but is operating well below its capacity of 15 rooms.

The RTM's consideration of the zoning change occurred because 20 Westport voters submitted a petition requesting it be overturned

As part of Greenfield Partners move, four of the five HDD buildings are to be sold. A lawyer representing Greenfield, Lawrence P. Weisman of the Hartford law firm Halloran & Sage, told the RTM the sale would not proceed if the zoning change did not remain in effect.

A woman who answered the phone at Greenfield Partners Thursday morning said the firm would not comment on the RTM's decision.

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

According to information presented to the committee, the four buildings are valued at $17 million. Weisman said a group of investors will purchase the buildings and Greenfield will be a tenant in National Hall.

Weisman has declined to identify the investors or say how much they will pay for the buildings.

Weisman told the RTM's members they could review but not revisit the commission's decision, and were not permitted to hold a new hearing. He said if a judge was reviewing the commission's decision, it would be based on the record of the commission's hearing.

RTM member Richard A. Lowenstein, Dist. 5, concurred with that position, saying the RTM's capacity to review the commission's decision was as an appellant organization. Unless the RTM determined the commission did something illegal by the town's charter, its decision on the zoning change "should be sustained."

On a broader note, Weisman said that how the HDD buildings are used ultimately will depend on the market. Similarly, Corwin said that through zoning you could try to encourage certain types of businesses to be established, but not dictate it.

Gregory J. DeStefano, Greenfield Partners' senior vice-president of design and development, told the RTM that when his firm previously owned the HDD buildings, "we worked tirelessly to try to get the property to work. We want to give it another chance."

During two night's of hearings last week before the RTM's Planning and Zoning Committee, accusations were made that people who wanted to lease space in the HDD for retail businesses were unable to make contact with Antares, and rents of existing tenants were raised to amounts that drove them out of business.

In line with that, in a report she prepared describing the P&Z Committee's hearings, committee member Joyce Colburn said the committee was left wondering if the property owners had made good-faith effort to promote a commercially-vital enterprise.

RTM member Amy Ancel, Dist. 3, said rather than the location of HDD causing the difficulty of leasing the property, "it's clear to me the current owner seems to be the problem." The failure of the HDD is "self-inflicted," said Ancel, and "I think we have a fundamental problem of greed here."

As a result of the RTM's overturning the amendment, a lawsuit brought by the owner of one of the buildings in the district will be withdrawn.

"We will save a lot of money," said Michael Savignol, whose wife, Paula, owns the building at 18 Post Rd. West. The Savignols' daughter, Christy, runs the store L'Antiquaire housed there.