Housing Needs Pressure Bar Harbor
Parking Funds Eyed as Possible Investment for Housing Fund
BAR HARBOR—Like a lot of communities across Maine and the United States, Bar Harbor has a problem with housing. There isn’t enough of it for seasonal employees. There isn’t enough of it for year-round residents. And what there is? It mostly isn’t affordable.
There are currently 20 residential listings on Zillow ranging from $359,000 to $11 million. Seven of those listings are over a million dollars. All but five are over $500,000.
According to an assessment last year, Bar Harbor needs an additional 616 rental units by 2033. And an additional 94 owner-occupied housing units.
The state of Maine itself needs between 76,400 to 84,300 new homes by 2030 to house new and current residents.
Locally, Bar Harbor’s population has increased from 4,820 in 2000 to 5,527 in 2020. It’s projected that by 2038, it will have more than 6,000 residents, an increase of 15%.
Over the last few years, Bar Harbor’s Planning Director Michele Gagnon and her staff have been looking into ways to create housing for more people. The process is not speedy and is often bogged down by multiple factors. Some of those factors rest squarely on the town—a somewhat convoluted land use ordinance, over forty zones, multiple definitions, a lack of density allowed for many zones so buildings can’t be fit together, a limited amount of buildable land outside of downtown, an aged water and sewer infrastructure. Some of those factors rest outside of the town’s control—the cost of building, a lack of stock, the cost of land, a lack of builders, interest rates, a need for more jobs that pay above a median wage.
Still, the staff and Bar Harbor Town Council have been working toward the problem on multiple levels. They are chipping away at the town’s land use amendment, put a cap on short-term rentals, created uses that allow shared housing and employee living quarters, all meant to help with the housing situation.
And on Tuesday night, December 5, Gagnon presented the Town Council with a strategy framework for housing priorities that is, she said, a living document that is still getting tweaked, especially its final section which deals with short-term rentals.
“This framework basically is a living document. It’s meant to provide guidance,” Gagnon said. It’s meant to help make sure that collectively as a community and a council that people are on board with the housing goals of the town.
“Our goal, in this case, is to increase housing availability and housing affordability,” she said.
THE FRAMEWORK
There are seven strategies in the housing policy framework.
“We are working on building a foundation,” Gagnon said and they want to make sure the actions have impact and meaning.
New Staff Planner Max Moreno is organizing a framework to organize all the districts and working through all the variations and structures of the land use ordinance, which is strategy three. Housing and Community Planner Cali Martinez is working on housing issues and delving into the town’s allotment of a 50-acre parcel from Acadia National Park.
“We hope by next spring there’s some movement on access and site conditions,” Gagnon said of that project.
Bar Harbor needs hundreds of housing units to meet its needs. Gagnon said it’s unlikely to meet those needs without the help of the greater region, which includes all island towns, Ellsworth, Trenton, and Lamoine. The department is also looking at ways to generate money for housing. This includes applying fees, for example, applying a higher vacation rental fee.
Councilor Maya Caines said that she appreciated the layout of the actions and successes. She worried about the conversion of year-round homes to seasonal employee housing as did Vice Chair Gary Friedmann, who specifically mentioned that two hoteliers bought up year-round dwellings that housed multiple families.
“That was really tough to see,” he said.
One group of apartments was on West Street Extension and the other was between Ledgelawn Avenue and School Street. “One of those hoteliers is making efforts to turn that around.” Buying those units, he said, changes the complexion of the neighborhood.
“The real idea behind this is to try to get some of these business-owned properties back into private hands,” Councilor Matt Hochman said. He also mourned the conversion of the Ledgelawn Apartments to seasonal worker housing. “That was 16 families that can no longer live there. Losing stuff like that is really hard on the community.”
Friedmann said that a man came to him recently. The man was losing his home after a business bought Compass Harbor Apartments for seasonal employees.
“He came to me literally traumatized,” Friedmann said. “There is no place else for him to go.”
Caines wondered if the language of “seasonal housing” and “seasonal businesses” needed to change, saying that it doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. Year-round employers, she said, are having a hard time recruiting. She hoped that the focus would be on them.
Caines said increasing seasonal housing doesn’t seem right to her. There is already so much use, she said, between seasonal workforce housing, summer visitors and short-term rentals. “It feels like all we have,” Caines said.
“There’s so many different problems with housing around here,” Councilor Joe Minutolo said. “Reestablishing neighborhoods is something that we’re really striving for in Bar Harbor.” This, he said, has been eroded by short-term housing and seasonal employees. “We need housing. Period.”
Hochman said that as a council they need to be on board with the framework but also not get in the planning department’s way.
To lose another multi-unit yearly housing dwelling makes it even more of a priority than there was before, Hochman said. He said that with each loss, “the more difficult it becomes for people to live here.”
Gagnon said that they can change the ordinance as much as they want, but people have to want to build or convert housing. She hopes to create a housing fund and her staff has begun researching ways to bring in money for that fund. At the same time, she expects to ask for money from the paid parking fees to help support that housing fund, which she said the town needs to bridge the affordability gap.
“If we want this to change, there’s going to have to be an injection of capital,” she said.
Friedmann said he worried about that because many hoped to use those paid parking fees to help offset the cost of the bond to rebuild the Conners Emerson School, a multi-million-dollar project.
Unlocking land, increase density, lowering the cost of construction are all important to creating housing, Council Chair Valerie Peacock said. As it is now, the town is competing with commercial interests whenever land is becoming available.
Lodging, Gagnon said, is allowed in over half the districts. “You’re going to get more returns (on investment) doing that than building a house.” Many landowners in certain areas could build more dwellings on their property but are not doing so. The question becomes how to incentivize people.
Friedmann said he probably gets two emails a week about housing and has been thinking about lobbying for a real estate transfer tax of 2%, which occurs in Nantucket. Vale, Colorado, also has a bunch of revenue sources to help fund town incentives.
“You can’t squeeze any more blood from a stone,” Friedmann said. He advocated working with the state legislatures. Bar Harbor is not the only community in Maine dealing with these things, he said.
LONG TERM RENTAL INSPECTIONS AND EMPLOYEE HOUSING
Councilor Hochman stressed that safety inspections are important for long-term rentals.
“There’s some really rough places on the island right now,” Caines said. Her concern is people who are afraid to report unsafe housing because of potential retaliation by employers or landlords. She wants to make sure that renters are protected and also landlords aren’t turned off from renting because of increased inspections.
Gagnon said there’s a fine line between health safety and making sure that renting isn’t too cumbersome for property owners.
“We’re treading very lightly,” she said, but stressed that they are very aware that they don’t want to wait for a fire or another disaster to occur before change happens.
Hochman said two places he was in with iffy conditions ended up having fires, which fortunately didn’t result in personal injuries. “I just want to be sure that the ones that are being rented out are safe.”
Friedmann said if you can incentivize people to keep their long-term rentals that is important. The burden on property owners, including long-term renters increases as costs go up every year. He cited water, sewer, taxes, insurance, and assessments as examples.
Caines said that they’ve been focusing a lot on short term rentals, which she believes are important., but that 971 dwelling units aren’t owned by Bar Harbor residents. Many of those are seasonal housing. The town isn’t really focused on anything that is just seasonal, she said.
“That’s almost more upsetting to me,” she said, than short-term rentals.
A recent article in the Bangor Daily News, cites, “At a time when nearly half of Maine households can’t cover basic living expenses, the state remains one of the nation’s top markets for second homes.”
OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS
There was a glitch in streaming the meeting on Tuesday. It should be up on Town Hall Streams eventually, but there is currently no video available because of this, we missed the beginning of the meeting. We’ll detail the following items once that video is uploaded. However, Town Clerk Liz Graves advised of the motions approved.
MDI YMCA CEO Ann Tikkanen was unanimously appointed to the Parks and Recreation Committee.
There was a slight correction to the November 21 meeting minutes. Minutolo abstained.
The agenda and consent agenda were approved. This means councilors approved the necessary funding to replace an existing utility easement, by purchasing the land for the Hulls Cove sewer pump station from Chris White. The land is on the Bar Harbor Road, where the Hulls Cove sewer pump station currently sits. It also means the town councilors approved the new police sharing agreement.
The Council removed the sub-bullet points in the “Top Priorities” section of its council priorities and approved the document.
The Council approved the town’s treasurer’s warrant and authorized to sign.
The Council moved to accept the request for funding from Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, and authorize the Town Manager, or his designee, to schedule a presentation at a future date.