Bar Harbor Continues To Deal With Short-Term Rental Ordinance Violations

Four new violations reach the Town Council

Carrie Jones

and

Shaun Farrar

Oct 18, 2024

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Andy’s Home Improvement, Inc.

BAR HARBOR—On Tuesday, Bar Harbor Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain brought four more instances of properties alleged to have been doing short-term rentals without a current license. At the Council’s meeting last month, Chamberlain had brought another alleged violation to the group.

The Council unanimously voted for Town Manager James Smith to try to create consent agreements with the property owners so that the town does not have to proceed in court to try to recover the fines involved in the violations. The properties are located at 256 Sand Point Road, 75 Ledgelawn Avenue, and two units at 16 First South Street. All were still being advertised in early October though they’d been notified of the violation by Chamberlain months earlier.

All short-term rentals must be registered annually in Bar Harbor. If they are not registered, they violate the town’s ordinance and are subject to fees.

“This is four vacation rental violations in one Council packet; it's absolutely ridiculous," said Councilor Maya Caines. "The planning department worked really hard on creating this ordinance, people voted for it, and I think it's absolutely absurd that we're having this conversation."

“The ordinance requires that I report to the Council if the violations have not been corrected or abated within a certain timeframe. These have not,” Chamberlain said.

“In the orders, you can see there are multiple steps—letters, phone calls—multiple times trying to reach out and talk to the violators,” said Chair Valerie Peacock.

The town has two types of short-term rentals: VR-1 and VR-2. The VR-1 rental permit is for a portion of a dwelling unit, or the entire dwelling unit, which is the primary residence of the property owner. A VR-1 permit holder is allowed two VR-1 registrations per tax assessor property identification number. This means that a property owner may have two entire separate dwelling units on a lot as short-term rentals as long as one of them is the property owner’s primary residence.

The VR-2 rental permit is for an entire dwelling unit which is not the primary residence of the property owner. Property owners with multiple dwelling units in one building can rent each of those dwelling units as a short-term rental but each unit requires its own VR-2 permit.

The amount of VR-2 rentals allowed is capped at 9% of the total dwelling units as of January of that year. All rentals must be registered each year by May 31. Registrations cannot be transferred. There are 36 properties currently on a waitlist for VR-2 registration. There are currently 470 registered VR-2s, down from 522 in 2022. For 2024, the 9% cap is 318.

Chamberlain said that the two property owners were communicated with and one did not respond. The property owners haven’t filed administrative appeals. The properties are still on rental sites.

"It’s not an 'Oopsie, I forgot to register my vacation rental,' it's an 'I literally don't care.’ It's so frustrating and disrespectful," Caines said. She also thanked Chamberlain and the Planning Department for their work.

Councilor Matthew Hochman agreed and said he hoped that if the town enters into a consent agreement, then it is more than a slap on the wrist.

“They’ve had multiple opportunities to resolve these and have chosen not to,” Hochman said.

Caines, Hochman, and Peacock all addressed the issue during the meeting. Vice Chair Gary Friedmann asked for a report on what happens with the violations.

Earlier this year, voters in both Mount Desert and Tremont rejected short-term rental ordinances.

PERMIT HISTORY OF THE FOUR VIOLATIONS AND COUNCIL ORDERS

Accounting for two of the four violations, due to the fact that it is a duplex and both units previously had VR-2 permits, 16 First South Street is the only rental of the group to have held a permit under the existing short-term rental ordinance. Unfortunately for the owner, they missed the registration deadline in 2023 and therefore lost their permit.

According to Chamberlain, the property at 75 Ledgelawn Avenue had been registered as a vacation rental in 2011 but has never held a permit under the existing STR ordinance.

The property at 256 Sand Point Road had been registered as a vacation rental in 2010 but has also never held a permit under the existing STR ordinance according to Chamberlain.