Bar Harbor Warrant Committee Recommends Budget, Land Use Amendments

Likely last meeting for Chair Seth Libby and Ezra Sassaman

Apr 11, 2024

BAR HARBOR—After multiple meetings throughout all of February and March, including subcommittees and full committees, the Warrant Committee concluded its recommendations to voters about articles on the town’s warrant and budget.

It was likely the last Warrant Committee meeting for both Chair Seth Libby and member Ezra Sassaman. Both have terms ending this year. Neither man has taken out papers to run again for the 15-member board.

“This is probably my last meeting. Thirteen years and it’s been a long haul, and I’ve met a lot of interesting people and wrestled (with) a lot of interesting issues. And I hope that those of you that are staying on will continue on in the tradition of the Warrant Committee as a, you know for lack of a better description, a road bump, a sounding board, a citizens’ forum for input that may or may not get heard in the big forum of the Town Council. I think you all do an excellent job. It really is citizens’ participation at its greatest and I hope that that tradition will continue.”

Sassaman thanked member Carol Chappell who suggested he run as a write-in candidate with just days before the election. “Thank you guys so much for the last three years. It’s been really fun.”

The Warrant Committee’s role, according to the town’s bylaws is “to consider, investigate, and report upon with recommendations or comments all articles except those dealing with election of candidates in the warrant of all Town Meetings, whether annual or special. When requested to do so, it shall be the duty of town officers and committees to meet with the Warrant Committee or any of its subcommittees and to furnish all information relative to matters being considered by said committee or subcommittee.”

The committee then submits its recommendations about budget articles to the Town Council. It also submits a report to the town clerk. That report is then printed and available to voters. The recommendations of each article before the voters are included in that report.

In 2017, discussions began in earnest of reducing the Warrant Committee’s numbers and election process with multiple councilors at the time publicly stating that the board was making policy. Bylaws and charter changes were considered and eventually enacted. A lawsuit ensued, which the town has lost, and has appealed.

BUDGET

The committee had originally recommended the Town Council look into approximately $1 million in cuts and fee changes, including an almost across the board 7% cut in several departments’ capital improvement lines, that the committee believed could reduce the property tax burden and expenditures by roughly $1 million. Town Manager James Smith then found approximately $1 million in cuts, tweaking a 20.2% increase in appropriations this year down to approximately a 15.7% increase, which the Town Council approved and will be on the warrant in June, which is when the voters will approve the budget or not.

In more concrete terms, if the voters pass the $27 million municipal budget and $8.8 million school budget as is in June, the median home’s tax bill will increase an additional $711 this year rather than $935. According to the town, a median home in Bar Harbor has a value of $522,350.

The Warrant Committee’s final recommendation varies from the Town Council’s slightly by increasing the amounts to the Mount Desert Nursing Association and Bar Harbor Food Pantry.

WARRANT ARTICLES

The Warrant Committee also made recommendations on four warrant articles. Three of these deal with housing and development. The other deals with the Design Review Board’s purview. All of these articles are more fully detailed in past stories (linked below) and in the town’s warrant.

One article would expand a type of employee housing called employee living quarters into several districts where that type of home is not currently allowed. In those districts, the housing type does not increase the number of people already allowed in each home. The housing would be on sites where the employer is located. It was initially discussed as a request from Glenon Friedmann of Bar Harbor Farms, who wanted to house her employees on site.

Employee living quarters do not have to be seasonal. They can be year-round.

Another article would allow a home type called shared accommodations into several zones not served by town sewer and water, which had some Town Hill residents concerned about existing water sources as well as the Northeast Creek watershed potentially having nitrate loading from septic systems.

Shared accommodations are not employee housing, though the people who live there can be employees. They do not have to be on the same site of an employer. They can be for retirees, students, and not necessarily linked to the business where people work. Planning Board Secretary Elissa Chesler had referred to them in a past meeting as a stepping stone into being able to afford to live in the community in another home style, be that house or apartment.

The third article deals with the state mandate LD2003, which the state created to compel municipalities to decrease density and promote more affordable housing. The five members of the public who spoke either against this or the other measures again worried about the environment, how increased building and housing density could impact nature in these areas. However, some also worried that the article itself was not understandable for voters and that it didn’t conform well to the upcoming draft 2035 Comprehensive Plan, which may have different designated growth areas than the 2007 plan. They advocated that town do build-outs for the articles’ impact as well as perform testing about the resources that was first recommended in the 2000s. Town Planning Director Michele Gagnon said the town has started that process.

Disclaimer: I am married (gasp!) to Shaun Farrar. He is on the Warrant Committee. We do not always think the same about issues or music or food choices. We do not always act the same. But, you should definitely know that he’s on there when I write Warrant Committee stories.