Bar Harbor’s Future Takes Shape: Comprehensive Plan Moves Forward
Next stop: Town Council
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BAR HARBOR—“So, how do we feel?” Bar Harbor’s Comprehensive Plan Committee Vice Chair John Kelly asked the group of volunteers gathered around the tables in the town’s third floor conference room. He took his glasses off and addressed the group, after another 90 minutes of work, February 3.
It was likely the members’ last meeting ever. And for a moment there was silence. Then, there were a couple of sighs. A couple of smiles happened next, and then people started talking again.
After a few years, countless meetings, word-smithing, thoughts, and public engagement, the committee had something it was ready to present to the town council, the planning board, and eventually the town’s voters.
“It’s a lot of work,” town council Chair Valerie Peacock said.
It was a lot of work, but they had one more motion before adjournment. David Woodside moved that the Comprehensive Plan Committee present Bar Harbor the plan as amended. It was created with engagement, the motion read, and represented the values of the community.
“Congratulations, thank you. Well done,” Kelly said.
The plan is meant to create a vision and guide for actions for Bar Harbor’s future. It has multiple sections that deal with the plan’s theme and frameworks, and implementation, and it explains a vision of Bar Harbor today and tomorrow.
There are multiple issues that shaped the plan’s direction, including:
“The impacts of both housing and labor shortages across Mount Desert Island.
“The limited land available for future development, which influences how Bar Harbor meets its future housing, economic, and infrastructure needs.
“The cost implications of sprawling development, which is prevalent in portions of town.
“Infrastructure investments that are needed to support future development activity.
“The impacts of over-tourism and over-crowding throughout the community.
“The lack of revenue, as a small community, to meet the expectations and needs of residents and visitors alike.”
During public comments, Tanya Ivanow worried about the term “mixed use” for some neighborhoods. She wasn’t quite sure what the term meant in the context of the comprehensive plan and zones.
“Are you going to put in a gas station? Are you going to put in a hotel? Are you going to put in a restaurant?” she wondered. “When you say ‘mixed,’ what do you mean? What are you going to put in this?”
Kelly said it was public comment not question and answer. The comprehensive plan doesn’t do that level of detailed decision making for the town’s land use and zoning. Those decisions are made in the future. The plan guides the future.
“How do I know what your future is? You can put a tank in there for all I know,” Ivanow said.
Both Kelly and Housing and Community Planner Cali Martinez said they could help explain how the comprehensive plan helps inform decisions after the meeting.
Jim Mahoney worried about the land use plan map. “That’s like the big picture guide.” When a whole area is in color as mixed use, and then there’s a notification that says it encompasses residential neighborhood, he worried that it will be misunderstood even if there is text later on explaining in more detail.
“That’s the challenge of putting anything on a map,” Kelly said.
There is a whole process for establishing districts and what can go within them and that process requires a vote, Kelly said. It isn’t done casually or without public input.
Peacock said the council is considering a lodging moratorium and the overall comp plan is very focused on housing or anything building up the tourism economy. The priorities of the plan looks toward housing. A moratorium will shift the conversation about zoning and community to the town’s planning board.
“What you’re talking about is playing out in the policy conversation,” Peacock said of the committee’s discussion about mixed uses and residential uses.
Martinez said the committee should consider if the issue is addressed somewhere else. “Almost every theme discusses housing being the priority.” It’s also within the plan’s regulatory revisions.
More than 200 people participated in past engagement, Martinez said, and in that engagement it was mentioned that the downtown was a vibrant center.
“It is a complex issue. Downtown is very complex as it is. The future conversation is about exact zoning,” Kelly said.
Elissa Chesler said that the comprehensive plan isn’t meant to be doing land use planning, but if they say “exclusively residential,” then the plan would put constraint on what can currently be done such as allowing commercial on a bottom floor and residential on the floors above it.
“It feels excessively proscriptive,” Woodside said.
Mahoney said that he wants to label the downtown center area of the map as including both mixed use and primarily residential neighborhoods. Peacock said that she thinks that applies to all the village centers.
Chesler asked if it would be possibly just to put a clarifying note on the map. “People are looking at this picture and it is concerning to some people and they may or may not dive into the text.”
In the end, that’s what the committee did.
The members also tweaked a couple of other typos and added a reference to the state letter (placed in the appendix) within the existing condition section.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
On November 20, 2024, the Planning Department introduced the Bar Harbor 2035 Comprehensive Plan. The event was live streamed and recorded.
Meeting recording: https://townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=37&id=62664
Presentation slides: /DocumentCenter/View/7875/Bar-Harbor-2035-Presentation-slides-112124
Draft Bar Harbor 2035 Comprehensive Plan and Accompanying Documents: https://www.barharbormaine.gov/501/Comprehensive-Plan
Contact Information:
If you have comments or questions on the Bar Harbor 2035 Comprehensive Plan, call the Planning Office at 288-3329 or email planner@barharbormaine.gov.
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