BAR HARBOR—Havana and Alpenglow are one step closer to getting a new look and Bar Harbor’s Design Review Board is hoping to eventually get a new look, too.
The board spent the end of its January 11 meeting discussing how it could potentially get out from under the auspices of the Bar Harbor Planning Board.
“It’s not necessarily about right now. It’s about right now and the future,” board member Mike Rogers said.
The discussion of the possibility began in earnest earlier in fall of 2023. Part of the discomfort of the board’s members was that when they drafted amendments to the Design Review Board’s portion of the town ordinance, Article XIII, they’d have to take those to the Planning Board for the changes to eventually go before the voters. The Planning Board can decide to not move those changes forward as can the Town Council.
At the time, Vice Chair Erin Cough asked why one board would have authority over another and called the Design Review Board a subordinate board. Cough is a former town councilor and her husband is on the Planning Board.
To take the Design Review Board out from the Planning Board’s auspices, the board would most likely have to be taken out of the town’s land use ordinance as it is currently written. The board would then be under the Town Council’s oversight rather than the Planning Board’s.
Part of the discussion focused on what the Design Review Board does currently, and how it is limited, how design review itself can be a subjective process and how the board would like to potentially restructure how it looks at historic properties and how its standards do and do not align with federal historic property standards.
According to the town’s website,
“The Design Review Board reviews all projects which are located within their jurisdiction. Their jurisdiction includes the Downtown Village Districts, the Shoreland General Development I District, Town Hill Business, and the Village Historic District. However, regardless of the district location, any conditionally permitted use or property which houses a bed and breakfast is subject to design review.”
CURRENT CHANGE IN THE PIPELINE
An amendment already heading to the Town Council this Tuesday, moved forward via the Planning Board at the Design Review Board’s request, would tweak the board’s process and the overlay of its purview—or what areas the board can have purview over.
If approved, the board would look at Shore Path abutters, properties with Route 3 frontage from Cromwell Harbor Road to Harbor Lane, as well as West Street, and other areas, including properties in Town Hill Village district that front certain areas of Route 102.
The amendment would also increase the amount of time applications have to be in before meetings from seven to 14 days. It also gives Planning Department 10 days rather than three before sending applications to the board. It would also take away the board’s jurisdiction over signs that are not illuminated, giving that to the code enforcement officer instead.
The Design Review Overlay amendment to the Land Use Ordinance will be on the Town Council’s agenda next Tuesday to potentially forward the amendment to public hearing. The changes would fate would be determined in June by voters.
THURSDAY DISCUSSION ABOUT POTENTIAL CHANGES
On Thursday, Cough said she’d like to “rewrite how we intersect” with the Planning Board.
“The past is the past and it’s hard to forget,” Town Planner Michele Gagnon said of the times that the board bucked heads with the Planning Board, which has had membership changes within it since then, but she said what’s important is working on the substance of the ordinance’s language that relates to the Design Review Board.
The ordinance has to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, she said. That process of updating the plan and looking for inconsistencies is underway.
“I really believe that updating those standards will have a lot of value,” she said, adding that to have a good, fair document that represents the times would be embraced by people. That’s what she believes.
Rogers said he wasn’t so sure, citing negative comments some people have made on social media.
Board Chair Barbara Sassaman said that she hoped to have a section on enforcement for when someone builds something completely different than what the Design Review Board granted them a certificate of appropriateness.
“They just get away with it,” she said of people who make changes to structures or signs that aren’t deemed appropriate.
“I think this board wants to work with the people who own the properties,” Cough said, saying she’d rather try to work with developers like she believes the Castine ordinance does, but the board should have the ability to revoke the certificate of appropriateness.
Gagnon suggested focusing on changes that are the most important to the board members rather than working on everything at once.
Rogers said he felt the entire ordinance needed to be rewritten.
The board plans to have a second meeting in February to work on changes.
The discussion began after Cough and Sassaman said that they’d met with a member of the Maine State Preservation Office about “certified local governments,” of which there are eleven in Maine.
“It opens up the opportunity for people in the town to pull grant money for their historic properties,” Cough said of the certification.
That certification could also help for repairing things in town as well, things like the fountain or clock on the Village Green. There are also grants about consulting. Nonprofits could also apply for grants through this certification.
HAVANA
The restaurant on Main Street owned by Michael Boland and Deidre Swords received a certificate of appropriateness for changes to its appearance. If the project goes forward , there will be an extension of the entrance of the property, which connects to the bar area and host stand. Concerns about the swing of the door were taken care of in the updated application so that the door will not swing onto the sidewalk. The plan for the 1890 building plans for increasing lot coverage by building that 15 by 12-foot proposed addition, increasing the coverage by 180 square feet.
The addition will have the same windows, siding, trim, and roof materials as the current building and the greenspace will not change.
It was unanimously approved.
ALPENGLOW ADVENTURE
Contractor Saben Rossi presented the plan for new windows at 288 Main Street, owned by Jon Tierney and Heather Blake-Tierney, the site of Alpenglow Adventure Sports.
Saben Rossi, contractor, decided to not have a cupola which is on the plans, but just new exterior windows. The triple window on south-facing wall on the plan may become a double, but would be of the same size. It was unanimously approved.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://barharbormaine.gov/271/Design-Review-Board
https://www.townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=37&id=49611