Hospital Expansion Moves to Public Hearing
Lobster Storage Plan in Town Hill a Go.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor Planning Board on Tuesday moved forward Mount Desert Island Hospital’s plan to expand and renovate. A public hearing on the project will occur March 5.
“She’s got good bones. She’s got great bones,” Hospital CEO Chrissi Maguire said at a community forum late last year, “but she does need a face lift.”
Mount Desert Island Hospital hopes to expand and modernize its main Bar Harbor campus, including its emergency department. It hopes to begin work in 2025 on the 42,600-square-foot expansion.
The critical access hospital gives Mount Desert Island first responders 24-hour hospital access. Though it serves a town of approximately 5,500 and an island of approximately 10,500, in the summer months through October its volumes at the emergency department triple.
Those people want to know where the hospital is when they need it. They also want to receive care from a modernized facility.
The role of the Bar Harbor Planning Board, January 29, was to decide if it had enough information to deliberate on the hospital’s plan in approximately a month. The board unanimously granted several waivers. The board unanimously found the MDI Hospital expansion incomplete, per the Bar Harbor Land Use Ordinance section 125-66, as the capacity letters from the public works department, police department, and fire department are still needed and the fire marshal approval, DOT road opening permit, Chapter 500 permit, and final signage and lighting design are proposed as conditions of approval. The planning board often finds projects incomplete prior to its public hearing.
Still to be determined is how the emergency light can be illuminated internally, which goes against town rules about signs in that district. The hospital would like an emergency sign that’s clearly visible for patients arriving to the hospital—especially patients unfamiliar with the building and who are in distress.
“Patient safety is a really big issue,” Hospital Senior Vice President Dana Fadley said though he said the hospital wants to be understanding of neighbors’ potential concerns.
The hospital received conditional approval from the town’s design review board. It needs to go before it for the exterior building signage.
In written public comment, abutters had addressed a few concerns that the hospital is addressing. An abutter north of Hancock Street was worried widening the service entrance would impact their own property. An abutter at 5 Wayman Lane worried about stormwater coming off the hospital’s property and onto their own site. That south side grade will be changed, hospital representatives said. There is currently no catch basin on Wayman Lane, and though the hospital can’t change Wayman Lane, since it is a town road, it can change site conditions. Another abutter hoped for more vegetation and screening. It was indicated at the planning board meeting that this would likely happen.
“This project is a long overdue project to bring this hospital into the 21st Century,” Derek Veilleux, principal and director of Healthcare Practice SMRT Architects and Engineers told the Bar Harbor Design Review Board in July. That presentation had been a pre-application of the schematic design.
The hospital was initially built in 1897, opening its doors in 1898. Wings were added in 1937, 1962, and 1969.
“We are in the midst of our renovation and expansion,” Fadley told the board. He was joined by SMRT’s Jessica Johnson and civil designer Emily Sprecher.
The hospital announced the expansion project in 2021. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services approved the project via a certificate of need, November 21. The construction on a new main entrance and emergency room renovation is expected to begin in 2025.
“All the traffic is being funneled to Hancock Street. Is that going to add an unnecessary burden to Hancock?” planning board member Guy Dunphey asked and he wondered if the curb cut on Route 3 (Main Street) could be two-way.
“The town really and truly decided it should be entrance only,” Bar Harbor Planner Hailey Bondy said. This was because of other traffic flow in the area and where accidents had occurred.
Fadley said that some will be coming into Wayman Lane.
Maguire has said that the hospital has done everything it can to minimize debt related to the project. The majority of the funding is $42 million in construction, and the hospital is raising a total $55 million so that it doesn’t cannibalize unrestricted giving during this construction.
The hospital is 80% into its fundraising achievement. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King have also secured $5 million in federal funds.
Maguire has said the hospital plans to go public with the campaign this summer at which point the the hospital will hopefully be at 90% of the total funding.
“We’re so excited with the support we’ve been receiving,” she said. Recently, the town abandoned (discontinued its claim to) Stanwood Place, a town-owned interior road on the hospital’s site so that the expansion could occur.
POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Prior to review, board member Teresa Wagner disclosed that she’s a member of the Birch Bay Retirement Village board, which is owned by MDI Hospital. The site says that Wagner is the vice chair of that board.
Vice Chair Ruth Eveland said Wagner is in a governing position in relation to the hospital, so it likely is a conflict for Wagner.
Eveland has a family member that works in the hospital in a non-management position and the board had previously declared that she did not have a conflict of interest. The board voted again on her potential conflict as well.
Board members unanimously decided that Wagner had a conflict of interest. Eveland was unanimously declared to have no conflict of interest.
GURNEY LOBSTER STORAGE
Gurney Investment Properties of Ellsworth’s request to allow a seafood company to have a temporary storage facility for lobsters on a 2.82 acre parcel in Town Hill, at 1311 Route 102 was unanimously found complete. Gurney will be leasing the property to a local lobster company. Lobsters will be contained in storage units and there will be six trucks maximum parked at the lot. The project has been approved by the town’s design review board. Marc Jaffrey represented Gurney Investment Properties.
The planning board did a site visit in the snow earlier in the day, January 29.
The major work on the site would be the roadwork to make the storage areas (refrigerated shipping containers and potentially box trucks) accessible. The current road on site is mulch. The site had held a residence, which had been leveled by a previous owner.
The applicants also want to provide housing for workers via an RV. During the discussion, Code Enforcement Officer Mike Gurtler explained that housing the employees in the RV is subordinate to the principal use of the property. It is now going to be most likely used by the company leasing the site. It will not be rented. Gurtler said no matter which business on the lot uses it in that way, the use would be subordinate to the business using it.
Currently, the site is used to store trailers and ladders and there is currently no power on the site.
In a December 1 letter to the Maine Historic Preservation Committee, Jaffrey wrote that the company plans to “provide power to the garage and have a new single RV hook up beside the garage. Water and septic for the RV site will be tied into the existing house septic and well.”
There would be parking for six workers during the day and multiple box trucks at night. The business would also build a noise containment device.
Town Hill resident Diane Vreeland said that though she isn’t against the project, “I do have a problem with using the RV as an accessory use.” She worried that other people will come in and use that as a use. “I don’t think it should be there as an accessory.”
The board had some discussion about tying the RV use to a certain building and what falls under land use (the board’s purview) rather than business use. There was also discussion about RV requirements as accessory uses to hook into adequate septic system under certain conditions.
Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Chief David Kerns said that his department has seen the mitigation plans for noise and cautioned that if business begins at 6 a.m., it’s an hour before the town’s quiet time ends. The department doesn’t see an issue currently with the plans.
The application was unanimously approved with conditions of approval that included that the capacity statement from public works is received, a storm water management plan is received, and that the applicant demonstrates the adequacy of the septic system to the CEO and agreement to remove dumpster contents twice a week and deal with any smell complaints.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To read the meeting packet:
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01292025-3537
SP-2024-07 Gurney Lobster Storage
Applicant/Owner: Gurney Investment Properties, Inc. 138 High Street, #343, Ellsworth, ME 04605
Application: Proposed use of a temporary storage facility for lobsters. The parcel is 2.82 acres.
Location: Tax Map-Lot 227-090-000.
Districts: Town Hill Business
Application Materials:
Application (submitted 12/5/2024)
Supplemental Information (submitted 12/17/2024)
Completeness Notice (posted 12/23/2024)
Supplemental Information (posted 1/13/2025)
Additional Supplemental Information (posted 1/14/2025)
Public Hearing Notice (posted 1/14/2025)
Final site plan (posted 1/23/2025)
SP-2024-05 MDI Hospital Expansion Project
Applicant/Owner: Mount Desert Island Hospital, 10 Wayman Lane Bar Harbor, ME
Application: Hospital expansion and campus redesign. The parcel is 5.61 acres.
Location: Tax Map-Lot 108-007-000.
Districts: Downtown Village II
Application Materials:
Application (submitted 1/9/2025)
Public Comment (posted 1/14/2025)
Stormwater Information (posted 1/15/2025)
Abutters Notice (posted 1/17/2025)
Proof of payment (received 1/16/2025)
Supplemental material (received 1/22/2025)
Revised Site Plans (received 1/22/2025)
For additional information, or if there are any questions, please contact Hailey Bondy by calling the Planning Department at 288-3329 or by emailing hbondy@barharbormaine.gov.
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Yet another cost "passed along" to locals from the cruise ship industry. That's right according to their own studies one of the biggest "customer bases" for MDI Hospital is people from cruise ships and they "expect a modernized facility." The second biggest customer base? Tourists who walk off cliffs, get splinters in their fingers from firewood, or get rescued from the Precipice Trail because they attempted to climb it wearing flip flop sandals (that's not hypothetical, it happened a few years ago). Not surprisingly these customers from big cities "expect a modernized facility." This would all be well and good if there were a two tiered billing schedule with tourists paying one rate and locals paying a much lower one. Alas this is corporate medicine we are talking about here and there is nothing, simply nothing, that corporate bean counters hate more than a seasonal drop in profits! So during the winter months efforts must be made to "sustain profitability" and simple calculations of the greatly increased operating costs of this much expanded facility clearly predict that as the"customer base" shrinks profitability per patient must of needs rise. As one of the off season patients I would prefer lower costs per visit over a more prestigious facade that makes Northern Lights groan with envy.