Hadley Point Landing Usage Rules Still Being Pondered
Bar Harbor Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt Looks To Parks And Recreation Committee For Input on Rules That Would Affect All Parks.
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BAR HARBOR—This past summer, a combination of heavy construction equipment being loaded onto barges at the Hadley Point boat ramp in Bar Harbor, some tour vehicles being allegedly parked on town property overnight, and overall increased commercial usage of the park prompted a closer look at the rules for park usage by both residents and town officials.
At the November 3 meeting of the Park’s and Recreation Committee, Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt asked for the “committee’s advice on preventing or limiting commercialization of town parks, including Hadley Point Landing.”
Leavitt said that the town is working on making changes to the town’s ordinances concerning usage of town parks and she was looking for advice and recommendations from the Parks and Recreation Committee. These ordinance changes would apply to all town parks and not just Hadley Point.
Committee member John Kelly said that Hadley Point is different from other parks because of its marine access and that the committee has to separate its jurisdiction from that of the Bar Harbor Marine Resources Committee. Kelly also said that furthering this dividing of jurisdiction would include the Parks and Recreation Committee only having control of the park to the appropriate tidal mark which by ordinance is the portion “lying above the mean high-water mark.”
Later in the meeting, it was determined that the committee wanted no control over the usage of the boat ramp and that should fall under the marine resources committee.
There is a need to determine what is considered commercial activity in the park according to Kelly and he gave an example that if you rent an RV and drive it to the park, that is not commercial activity but running a rental business from the park would be.
One issue that is becoming a more popular method of marketing tours and other activities is an event where the point of sale does not occur at a town park but off site, such as online, but where the parks are used for the actual activity or as an access point for the activity.
“Kayaks, they park their boat trailer and what not, with e-commerce, launching out of a recreational space, do we limit kayakers from using it?” Leavitt asked.
Committee Chair Greg Veilleux said, “No.”
“I think that there is a difference between, it’s hard, using your example, John ,if it’s an RV. I go someplace; I rent a kayak; I put it on my car, and I drive down there and I launch from there, that sounds like that’s okay,” said Committee Secretary Erin Cough, “If I were to meet somebody down there and they were to give me a guided kayak tour out of that same space, I think that’s where we have this sticky issue. My biggest thing from Hadley Point this summer is the conducting business out of the location and, honestly, the construction traffic, but that goes back to boat launch.”
Cough then asked if what the committee members were looking for was the distinction between using the park and using the boat launch: Do they want all commercial activity to be done within a certain range of the boat launch area?
There was a lot of discussion concerning the intricacies of different types of commercial uses and what types of commercial uses are occurring at Hadley Point Landing as well as other town owned or public access spaces such as the end of Bridge Street, another popular kayak tour launching site.
Recognizing that there were members of the town’s Marine Resources Committee in attendance, Veilleux asked if they would like to say anything.
“I think that the way you guys are going about this makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels. I think you are spending most of your time thinking about the really difficult ones, which is great, because, I mean, there are easy ones. Do you want a food truck down there with signs? No. But by the time you get into the definitions such as, is it advertised to go out of there, frankly, the kayak tours are going to be advertised to go out of there. That’s where they are going to meet. Maybe they are going to do it online, but they are actually going to meet there,” said Marine Resources Committee Chair Chris Petersen. “The main uses of the boat ramp are commercial fisheries use, which is mostly intertidal use, worming, and clamming, commercial use by aquaculture that works out of the bay, and then, I guess, this last summer there was some staging for some construction work being done on remote islands by, maybe, nonprofits.”
It sounds like the construction created some issues due to the size of the stuff being moved on the beach, Petersen added.
“From our perspective, you seem to have answered most of our questions already because you’re talking about marine uses because you really want to make sure that those are still allowed there. It’s a really important boat ramp because there just aren’t many boat ramps. Literally, the next place that you can go to is the airport,” said Petersen.
Even when the ferry terminal is up and running, it won’t serve the upper bay as much as Hadley Point does, according to Petersen.
Marine Resources Committee member Fiona de Koning, who is also a co-owner of Hollander and de Koning, a farmed shellfish company said, “I really want to thank the public works department for jumping on the problem in water quality that we had this year. That is something that I think your committee also needs to be aware of because you don’t want to swim in poopy water. Nobody wants to recreate in it, you don’t want to harvest clams in it, and in fact, it will be closed down for that.”
A lot of people use that area for water-based activities and the commercial access is dependent on how many people are using the area. There are not many beach access spots and perhaps a permit process is appropriate for certain uses, de Koning added.
Longer duration parking, during any one day, of tour vehicles, as well as other commercial vehicles, and personal truck and trailer combinations was a large topic of discussion.
Petersen said that he has heard in the last few years, since Acadia National Park started requiring permits for sunsets on Cadillac Mountain, that a common time for Hadley Point to be crowded and for parking to be a real issue, is during sunsets.
Nearby resident Sue Hersey asked, “What is our vision for Hadley Point Beach? I am a resident there. We go there often and I love seeing families there. My issue is what do we want it to be for a beach? Personally, I don’t want for profit sales happening on the Hadley Point parking lot. I can’t see that as a vision for our neighborhood beach.”
Vice Chair Jeff Dobbs, who was attending via Zoom, said, “After listening to all of you, there’s two things that jump right out at me. I think the ordinance, since I wrote the original ordinance for park use, that no retail sales of any kind will take care of anybody going down there to sell anything. I heard it mentioned that offsite sales, via the internet, that’s fine. And then the other part is just to allow drop off and pick up from commercial and kayak companies. That will eliminate your parking problem. The rest is recreational use.”
Leavitt told the committee that she didn’t need a motion from the committee and can take what everyone has said and take another look at the ordinance. This process started, according to Leavitt, because she wanted to put signage out that would allow enforcement of the town’s ordinances and this made her realize that some of the ordinances could be strengthened, especially after the events of this past summer.
TENNIS COURT REFINISHING UPDATE
Leavitt gave an update on the Cromwell Harbor Road tennis courts which were recently resurfaced and repainted. Leavitt said that unfortunately one pickle ball court did not get painted so there are only two instead of the three that were there prior to the courts being redone.
Leavitt said that the line renewal for the tennis courts and the basketball courts is done every five years and that the town spent $20,000 getting them done this year.
Veilleux said, “Over the past few years, many members of the public have requested additional pickleball courts and for lines to be painted on the tennis courts.”
Veilleux then asked if there were pickleball people in the audience.
Resident Lorelle Friend stood up and said, “I love pickleball. I have been organizing games here for about four years now. Having the Cromwell Harbor courts has been lovely. It is a place you can play for free, which is unusual. I was surprised when they resurfaced the courts, they looked really good, but again, we were missing one court when they were all done.”
Friend said that four courts would be best for summer crowds and asked that they be painted in such a way that the players don’t have to use the tennis court nets which are set at a different height than pickleball nets.
Leavitt said that she would need to request the money in the upcoming budget for the other one or two courts. This means that the new pickleball court(s) lines wouldn’t be able to be painted until after July 2026, if the money is approved, and if the company is available to do the work.
Kelly made a motion that the committee recommends to the town court B (the tennis court with the missing pickleball court lines) be repainted as court A (the tennis court that was repainted with two pickleball courts) is as soon as funds are available. Committee member Erin Cough seconded the motion and it passed unanimously with committee YMCA representative Ann Tikkanen not voting due to the fact that she is not allowed to vote as a nonresident of the town.
HADLEY POINT UPDATE
Leavitt gave a quick update on what her department has accomplished at Hadley Point Landing this summer. She said that the public works department regraded the parking lot area once she determined what was allowed from the state. A little more maintenance is required and Leavitt is putting together a seasonal maintenance plan for Hadley Point.
Signage related to dog waste is still needed and Leavitt said that she is looking into informational language for effects of dog waste on the water quality that could be included on the signage. There is a dog waste bin and dog bag dispenser at Hadley Point Landing now.
Tikkanen asked, “Is it was impossible to think you could ‘disallow’ dogs being down there.”
Kelly responded, “It’s impossible.”
“I agree with John, that’s a non-starter,” Petersen said.
OTHER BUSINESS
The committee unanimously approved three park use permits at the beginning of the meeting. Kelly made a motion to recuse Tikkanen from discussion for both of the YMCA permit requests and it passed unanimously.
Those included the YWCA MDI’s annual Carol Dyer Memorial Luminaria Evening on the Village Green from 6:00 p.m., to 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 8, 2025; the MDI YMCA’s annual Acadia Half-Marathon and 10K Race 2026 on the athletic field from 6:30 a.m., to 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 7, 2026; and the MDI YMCA’s annual Bar Harbor Bank and Trust Half-Marathon and 5K Race 2026 on the athletic field from 7:00 a.m., to 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 12, 2026.
Kelly said that he wants the committee to see what changes have been recommended to the town council for the Glen Mary Pool rebuild so that the committee can recommend the plans again or not recommend the new plans to the town council.
Cough, who is also on the Village Improvement Association (VIA) board said she will ask the VIA if it will do a presentation to the committee.
There was a list of possible next meeting dates, November 17, December 1, and December 15 read aloud, but no specific date was chosen before the committee adjourned.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
CORRECTION: We had Chris Petersen as a Peterson. Many apologies for the error. We’ve corrected this on November 13, 1 p.m.
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