Chapter 50 Unveiled and Ready for Perusal
Potential new cruise ship limit rules are public
BAR HARBOR—At a special meeting, Wednesday night, the Bar Harbor Town Council quickly scheduled two public hearings on cruise ships and announced that it had received the proposed contracts that would allow the town to regulate cruise ship visits via that mechanism rather than through the town’s land use ordinance.
“All the pieces are here now,” said Council Chair Val Peacock.
The councilors unanimously moved two separate cruise ship pieces to August 27 public hearing. That hearing will likely begin at 6:30 p.m. and be held at the council chambers on the third floor of the Bar Harbor Municipal Building on Cottage Street.
There are two pieces to the discussion.
The first is Chapter 50, which, like the current rules, involves cruise ship caps, but those caps are monthly, daily, and seasonally, and include cruise-ship free days. The caps are via contracts and the town’s reservation system and the numbers are determined by ships’ lower berth capacity.
Chapter 52 is the other piece of the discussion where the town voters are being asked if they want to repeal the current 1,000-a-day limits they approved in November 2022. Those limits were enacted this July after a federal challenge to their legality and are referred to as Chapter 52.
The town defended the 1,000-a-day limits against a consortium of local businesses and a Maine pilot association. That town legal victory is being appealed. The town is also being sued by the lead petitioner of the citizens’ initiative Charles Sidman.
Chapter 50 would only come into play if the voters repeal Chapter 52 by secret ballot during this November’s elections.
On Wednesday, Chapter 50 had been updated with the potential contracts that are involved with cruise ship visits. That information is available in the Town Council packet for the meeting.
Chapter 50 requires cruise ships to have a contract with the town to visit Bar Harbor. The licenses are codified in a contract. It also requires the property where the passengers disembark to have a contract.
The initial contract term with cruise lines is five years and at the end of year two and each year after, there is a 90-day renewal time where the Council can allow the contract to extend one year after, or end the contract (which would require voters approving that end), or the Council could propose to change the caps in any direction up or down (which would also require voters approving that change).
Again, Chapter 52 would have to be repealed for Chapter 50 to be in effect. Voters will decide to repeal Chapter 52 or not this November at what most people call “the polls,” but many in town government call town meeting. This, Peacock clarified Wednesday night, does not mean a large Conners Emerson-located meeting such as the one where people sit in the gym and approve the town budget. This vote is like when townspeople go to the municipal building and elect officials (and vote on land use amendments) via a secret ballot.
There will be more details presented on Chapter 50 at the Town Council’s August 20 meeting. The Council will schedule an informal question and answer meeting at that date as well.
According to the draft Chapter 50, “All cruise ships booked and confirmed prior to November 8, 2022 for an arrival date before January 1, 2026 shall be permitted a reservation notwithstanding whether such reservation exceeds the daily, monthly, or annual cap set forth in section 50-13(D).
“All cruise ships booked and confirmed prior to November 8, 2022 for an arrival date in 2026 shall make good faith efforts to reschedule said reservation for a date within the Cruise Season and not on a cruise ship free day as set forth in section 50-13 (C).
“All cruise ships booked and confirmed prior to November 8, 2022 for an arrival date after 2026 shall be required to rebook consistent with the limitations set forth in section 50-13(D).
“Cruise ships with a published lower berth capacity over 3200, confirmed prior to November 8, 2022, are exempt from the daily cap set forth in section 50-13(D). All ships exempted under this provision, however, shall be counted towards the disembarkation limitations set forth in section 50-13(D) for purposes of applying those five limitations to other cruise ships not exempted, and shall be otherwise subject to all other terms of this chapter.
“Small cruise ships. Cruise ships registered and operated under the laws of the United States with a published lower berth capacity of 200 or less shall not be subject to or counted towards the daily or monthly caps set forth in section 50-13(D), but are otherwise subject to all other terms of this chapter.”
Councilor Earl Brechlin said a key part of Chapter 50 is that the cruise ship caps can’t be moved without voters approving that change.
“I want to be sure the public understands that that is binding on the Council,” Brechlin said of the proposal.
“We can’t arbitrarily change the caps. It is up to the town of Bar Harbor whether those caps get changed or not,” Councilor Matthew Hochman added.
One woman in the audience Wednesday worried about the information not being readily available and also asked about the wording on the ballot, who writes it, and the legal vetting. Town Attorney Stephen Wagner said those articles are subject to review by the town clerk and town attorney.
Town Clerk Liz Graves clarified that it’s the Town Council’s document.
Other questions included illuminating how the November vote would occur.
NEXT STEPS:
August 20: Regular Town Council meeting with presentation of details
August 22: Informal question and answer, time and location to be determined
August 27: Special Town Council meeting with a public hearing on Chapter 50 and Chapter 52’s potential repeal and LUO amendments.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
THE PRESENTATION (all images in the story with a green subhead are from the presentation)
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There is only one reason for this unseemly haste -- the council desperately wants there never to be a cruise ship season with a 1,000 per day cap, so that the voters will never actually experience the impact on the BH quality of life the voters enacted (be that good, bad or indifferent) , and then, if the impact is found positive, come to expect and demand the 1,000 per day level of visitation as normal.
The proposed ordinance purports to surrender the town's future exercise of its regulatory authority (including by voters) to amend the ordinance or reduce the visitor cap for the five-year period of the anticipated contracts with the cruise lines or disembarkation facilities. There is a real question as to whether the current council has the legal authority to so bind a future council or the voters. And it leaves the legislation subject to challenge as an unlawful attempt to contract away the town's regulatory authority. So the more prudent course would be expressly to make such contracts subject to future amendments of the ordinance by the council or voters, so as to preserve the town's authority.
"ARTICLE VIII Amendments of this Chapter § 50-18. Amendments This Chapter may be amended consistent with other Town ordinances, except that any amendments inconsistent with a cruise line contract pursuant to Articles III and V or coordination contract pursuant to 50-15B then in force shall not apply to the parties to such contracts unless and until such contracts expire or are terminated in accordance with their terms."