Hotelier Meets With Conners Emerson School Board To Discuss Concerns About Inn at Eden

BAR HARBOR—On Monday afternoon, local business man and hotelier Stephen Coston met with the Conners-Emerson School Board to discuss his proposed 24-room Inn at Eden Street that would abut the Conners-Emerson School and had caused concern among some residents and the school board about its location.

He’d been invited to the meeting by School Board Chair Alexandra Simis.

Because of Bar Harbor’s recent 60-day emergency moratorium on some lodging uses in the town, Coston said he was unsure if the project, which had yet to come before the town’s planning board would go forward. The 60-day moratorium may or may not be extended. It was enacted by a 6-1 vote of the Bar Harbor Town Council, November 19.

Proponents of the moratorium believe that it will give the town a pause to determine where and how it wants to allow (or not) new and larger types of lodging to be built, citing congestion and infrastructure concerns. Opponents say that addressing those concerns will be a long and complicated process to enact those changes and that a moratorium may not be long enough to do so, particularly as the town will lose its long-term code enforcement officer at the end of the month.

Simis invited Coston to the board’s December 2 meeting to give a presentation about his project, the Inn at Eden Street, which directly abuts the school’s playground per the school’s new multi-million reconstruction project.

Sitting on a chair in the Conners Emerson library with the school board and staff facing him, Coston explained that the moratorium, which pauses all construction and town review of projects such as his, has made him unsure of the project’s future.

“I kind of view it as out of my hands at this point. I’m not sure what it will ultimately become,” Coston said of the project.

School Board members Misha Mytar, Tyson Starling, and Mike Kiers. Carrie Jones photo

School board member Tyson Starling said that “one of the number one concerns I get from people I’ve spoken with is the proximity to the playground.”

Coston explained that currently there is a row of trees between his property line and the school. More trees could be planted and fencing could be erected, he said.

“You could do cedar hedges,” he said, around the playground and he would be happy to talk about paying for that. There are other options to minimize the sight lines between the hotel and the school, he said.

The original proposal, which he said has since been updated, shows balconies and windows looking toward the school. He said balconies could potentially become bump outs and windows on those bump outs could be positioned to not face the school.

“We could just make it so there are no windows facing the school,” he said.

“The no-window solution is a good way to mitigate some of the complaints,” Starling said.

The plan that currently exists now has a 15-foot setback rather than the 10-foot setback required, Coston said. “That is satisfying the zoning standard.”

Pre-existing structures on the site are currently violating the setback, which would allow them to develop closer than that 10 feet, he said. They chose not to.

“I’m going out of my way to get it as far out of the way as possible when these concerns started to show up,” Coston said.

Simis asked about the driveway onto the site, which is on Route 3 (Eden Street), near where the two-way road intersects with Cottage Street, a main route into Bar Harbor proper. The current driveway has a sharp slant and diminished sight lines due to vegetation.

Coston said they have met with MaineDOT, the town staff, and the fire department about the access and concerns. Because it is a new use for the property, new standards have to be met concerning that driveway. To meet those, they would have to blast out the driveway and clear the right-of-way and sight lines in a permanent way.

“That driveway will resemble nothing like” what it currently looks like, Coston said. He mentioned how he wished the project had not been presented to the public the way that it was, which was with plans leaked to the Quietside Journal and then public discussion on news sites and social media.

“All we were doing is going to planning board for completeness,” Coston said. “This was the very beginning of the process.”

If there had been no moratorium, the Inn at Eden would have gone to the town’s planning board for a completeness review last week, the application would be found complete (or not), there would have been a public hearing, and so on, he said.

“I wish people would give me the opportunity to explain” how he could address a concern before that concern becomes a deal breaker, Coston added.

Starling also asked about the side elevation of the four-story building, not including lower parking. The height limit is 40 feet for the site. The height limit for the new school is also forty feet.

“A lot of the buildings in Bar Harbor end up about the same height because of the zoning,” Coston said.

He said that reflecting on the project, if it goes forward, he doesn’t see any concern that isn’t addressable.

“I just regret that it didn’t get to go to completeness (at the planning board) so that we could lay some of this out,” Coston said. “The most painful part of this for me is everyone accusing me of making the donation to the school as part of a bribe.”

Coston had announced a $100,000 donation to the school earlier this August.

“I don’t wake up in the morning and try to make people mad. I’m just trying to develop the property” that he purchased, he said. “In a nutshell, I regret the way the whole thing has gone, and wish it could have gone differently.”

Simis said she appreciated Coston coming to the meeting.

After Coston left the meeting and when the board was discussing items for the agenda, board member Misha Mytar asked how the school board should engage during the moratorium about properties in close proximity to where students gather.

“What’s happening in the town that we should or shouldn’t engage in during this moratorium period?” she said. “We should pay attention to it.”

“We have the opportunity to talk,” Vice Chair Marie Yarborough agreed. “Our jobs are very specific,” she said, which is to think about what is best for the students. ”We should be having conversations about this with the lens we were elected to use.”

The board decided to have moratorium updates during its future meetings.

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