Campground & Camping Vehicle Standard Changes Put on Hold in Bar Harbor
Potential changes to short-term rental residency definitions, Salisbury Cove Corridor, and language moved forward to town council
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Shops.
BAR HARBOR—The public hearing on a proposal to adjust rules around the town’s campground standards was taken off the planning board’s agenda for another review. It will not face voters at the town meeting in June.
“The planning board will go back to the drawing board on this,” Planning Board Chair Millard Dority said.
Two members of the public, Isabella Connelly and Charles Sidman said it might be appropriate to workshop the idea.
“Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more,” Dority said.
As a result, the board agreed to remove the public hearing on campgrounds that was scheduled for the board’s January 29 meeting. A slew of other potential land use ordinance amendments moved ahead for town council review and public hearings before that board.
In explaining the item’s removal, Dority said that he thought that the board had heard from members of the community and members of the board itself that by combining camping vehicles with campsite standards, the changes have gotten a little muddled.
There are areas included in the proposed changes where the town may not want recreational camping vehicles. Rather than moving forward with this proposal, the board decided to take more time to decide if it’s best to address the potential changes as two amendments.
“I’ve just heard a lot,” Dority said.
Planning board member Teresa Wagner said she found a couple of inconsistencies that she believes come from a lot of the prior merging and changes to the proposed modifications.
“We completely agree,” Planning Director Michele Gagnon said. She also thinks there should be one amendment for campgrounds and one for RVs. “We would rather go back to the drawing board than push something forward that we don’t believe is right.”
PUBLIC HEARINGS
The planning board members unanimously moved forward multiple proposed land use ordinance amendments to the town council. Those include: one dealing with offensive language, the Salisbury Cove corridor front setback, timeframes for projects, definitions for multifamily-1 and multifamily-2, residency requirement definitions for short-term rentals, and fire suppression.
Townhill resident Diane Vreeland questioned the changes in the timeframes.
That article would allow more time for a project to begin after approval. It is currently six months. It would extend that time to a year. The time that a project is allowed to be considered to be “substantially complete” would extend from 18 months to 24.
All items have already come before the board multiple times before they were moved to the January 29 public hearing. Their next step will be to go before the town council. Public hearings will be held there as well. Any change would have to be approved by voters in June.
The offensive language ordinance would rid the town’s land use ordinance of the term “grandfathering” to refer to legal nonconformity. The term has racist roots.
During public hearing, Sidman said he had no problem with that portion of the ordinance being “wordsmithed to remove terminology that some people find sensitive” but did not like the term grandfather, which has other uses (such as to show lineage and family relationships when a noun) being labelled as “offensive language,” which is the phrasing in the ordinance’s preface.
“I’m actually offended at being made a dirty word in my own town,” Sidman said. “I’m a proud grandfather.”
He said the town could do a better job without labelling “all of us grandfather’s persona non gratis in our town.” He asked the staff to revise the preface.
His comments were the only ones on that topic. The board unanimously moved it forward to the town council.
The short-term rental change (if enacted) would remove old language and “length of stay” language from the definitions and address that as a stand-alone element. The minimum length of stay would not change. Most notably, the amendment would refine the definition of primary residence. It was unanimously moved forward.
One member of the public was interested in the definition of “primary residence.” That is the location where the owner resides for more than 183 days in a year and is listed as the owner’s primary residence for legal and tax purposes. A person can only have one at a time.
Sidman said that they are treading on dangerous ground with the definition. A person in the military or traveling salesperson might not reside in their home in a year. He worried about the ordinance change potentially telling people that they can be citizens and voters but not act as residents.
One town councilor had also sent a message to Dority asking for the language to be revised from “owner” singular to “owners” plural so that it would be the same as Chapter 174.
Gagnon said that the staff does not believe that using the word singular removes other owners. If that change does ultimately seem necessary, it could be presented in November and be ready for the next batch of registrations. Registrations for short-term rentals occur annually and require a fee.
Vice Chair Ruth Eveland agreed and said, “Let’s get this part done. The minor corrections can be done in time.”
The article concerning multifamily definitions would show that the structures are not meant to be “separate, detached single-family buildings on the same lot but structures that contain multiple separate living units for residential use.” Those could be triplexes, town houses, and others.
The other proposed article would make setbacks along Route 3 in the Salisbury Cove corridor district 75 feet throughout, rather than 150 feet. One member of the public worried about potential implications to the Salisbury Cove corridor setbacks in relation to the scenic byway.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Rick Osann Art.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To read the meeting packet:
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01292025-3537
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here (about how you can give) or here (a direct link), which is the same as the button below.
If you’d like to sponsor the Bar Harbor Story, you can! Learn more here.