If They Change It, Will They Build?

Planning Board Ponders Potential Land Use Changes, also recent real estate transfers

Nov 03, 2023

BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor Planning Board didn’t have any projects to approve during its Wednesday night meeting but for two and a half hours, the members advised staff on multiple potential land use ordinance changes that govern how Bar Harbor can be developed.

The land use ordinance regulates how land within Bar Harbor is used, regulated, and developed. Within that there are zoning regulations, which determines what can and can’t be built in a district. Bar Harbor has about 40 zoning districts, all with slightly different (or vastly different) rules and uses. Typically, the goal is to have use in a district (be it residential, industrial, commercial, transitional) be somewhat uniform.

Within those zoning rules are places that Bar Harbor and other towns and cities make further restrictions to uses such as:

1. How big buildings can be

2. Accessory buildings—are they allowed, what are the uses, specific requirements

3. Rooms, area per family

4. Frontage of lots

5. Setbacks from the roads and other buildings

6. Minimum size of lots

7. Parking requirements

8. Area per dwelling unit, etc.

Land use ordinances also guide future development within a town, which has implications for its residents. This is why staff often creates those changes and then those changes go before the Planning Board and/or Town Council before being presented to voters on the ballot. To be on a ballot in June 2024, the wording for those changes must typically be completed by December for Planning Board review and public hearings and notices.

Wednesday’s meeting delved into multiple potential changes that may come before voters next June, next November, or potentially beyond.

UPDATE TO POSSIBLE LAND USE CHANGES TO LODGING DEFINITIONS

Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain spoke about the listening session on possible changes to lodging definitions, to winnow the multiple definitions to potentially just four and to also look to further refine where different types of lodging are allowed—so in what zone is a hotel allowed currently and so on.

She’s going to continue working on the downtown residential district to address concerns with expanding lodging uses there, institute clear goals to guide the amendment, consider adding a fifth lodging use to protect existing uses for nonconformity, consider including campgrounds in the amendment, and continue working on the proposed uses.

She presented Planning Board members with the results of a PolCo survey that ended this week. She’ll bring revised draft language to the Planning Board’s December meeting.

POSSIBLE CHANGES TO LAND USE ORDINANCE FOR EMPLOYEE LIVING QUARTERS AND SHARED ACCOMMODATIONS

Community and Housing Planner Cali Martinez reviewed key comments from a recent listening session, which included the bio lab wanting to expand employee living quarters (ELQ) and shared accommodations (SA) in more areas than originally suggested, the concerns about the power dynamics of employee living quarters, the worry about water capacity if ELQ and SA are built off town infrastructure, as well as excitement from one of the Bar Harbor Farms owners over the possibility of the change, others expressed worry about an increase of traffic if the expansion of uses was allowed.

The Planning Board discussed how SA-1s are not much larger than single family dwellings, and how only two employers in the survey wanted to potentially build a dwelling that would house more than 20. Those were a restaurant and KOA campground.

Town Planner Michele Gagnon said that the ELQ changes would probably not be ready in time for the upcoming ballot.

“We don’t want to do something that is going to fail,” Planning Board Chair Milard Dority said, but at the same time, he very much wanted to do something for the people who are “screaming” for housing.

“I don’t think it’s fair to the people who are waiting,” Dority said.

Gagnon said she wanted to be realistic with how much the department can get done, with Martinez working on three or four land use amendments at one time.

Martinez suggested adding a special meeting in November so that they can be better prepared in December with exact language.

Planning Board Vice Chair Ruth Eveland said she, too, would like to get going on these changes because “it just seems the right thing to do.” Construction costs have only gone up and there has been support within the community.

Dority didn’t think like potential language about restricting things like building materials usede and roof pitches and other subjective aspects to building the dwellings. Gagnon said the language is in there because people had originally been worried that employee housing that might not be as visually palatable as other structures.

“In whose eyes? In their eyes?” Dority asked.

Parking standards were also discussed with Gagnon advocating for clear standards for developers so that they knew what the rules would be for a potential project.

Planning Board members also discussed parking standards for the uses if in the rural district. The town’s current lowest standards depend on the location of the shared accommodation. Martinez will work on parking and alternative actions about size of the employee living quarters in the districts.

Eben Salvatore said that most of the shared accommodations are currently in the downtown district and suggested allowing those existing SAs, to increase from five to eight people in each dwelling.

Gagnon said she would keep thinking about that possibility.

LD 2003

Gagnon discussed the state’s affordable housing law, LD2003, which she said is meant to create increased housing opportunities.

“It’s the first step to a significant change to the housing picture in Bar Harbor,” Gagnon said, explaining LD 2003 was not allowing municipalities to be more strict than the state when it came to aspects of land use development, but more permissive.

The state’s report explains that “LD2003 requires municipalities to permit a wider range of housing types and commits state financial and technical assistance.” It also is meant to be a “data-informed approach to measuring regional and statewide housing production.”

Gagnon has met with the state twice for comments about potential changes in the land use ordinance to conform with the state rules. Chamberlain has been testing the potential changes with case scenarios.

The vacation rental clause will likely be another warrant article separate from LD 2003.

Any dwelling units created from the state legislation would not be able to be used as a VR-2, she said.

“The whole point is to encourage people to build structures,” Eveland said.

This will also be discussed at the special Planning Board meeting in November, which is yet to be scheduled.

Minimum area per family is one of the biggest hurdles to building housing, but there has not yet been a community-wide discussion about it so Gagnon was hesitant to include it with this round of land use ordinance changes, worrying that it would potentially cause voters to reject all of the changes that need to be there to comply with the state legislation.

DESIGN REVIEW BOARD CHANGES

The changes now are mostly adjusting the design review overlay map and housekeeping aspects. Adding all the structures on the National History Register is no longer being discussed for putting on Appendix A, the town’s own list of historic properties. Martinez said there is no current plan to put those properties on the appendix, which is a part of the town’s land use ordinance and is updated every year. A lot of the approval of signs would go to the code enforcement office rather than Design Review Board.

All current historic standards continue to exist in the Design Review Board standards. The overlay would expand in some areas and be reduced in others. Martinez had not yet determined how many properties would be impacted. These changes would be voted on in June.

UPDATED LAND USE AMENDMENT PRIORITY LIST

The Planning Board and Gagnon also discussed the list of priority items related to planning that would require an amendment to the land use ordinance.

Secretary Elissa Chesler said that there are pieces that might be missing on the list, but once the Comprehensive Plan is completed those piece might fill in or the priorities currently on the eight-page list may change. The rest of the list is at the end of the packet beginning at page 95.

via Planning Board packet, rest of the list can be seen there. These are just the first four pages

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE

Chesler, who is also on the Comprehensive Planning Committee, and Gagnon gave a quick update about the committee, which has met with multiple boards in the last few months.

EXCUSED ABSENCES POLICY

Cough asked about the Town Council’s policy of a 25% absence rate, which has no element of excused or unexcused absences for attending a meeting. Cough said that there is a flawed element in that process and wondered why the board members vote to approve an excused or unexcused absence, which he perceives as a waste of time.

Eveland said that it’s something that they could bring to the Town Council’s attention especially since the council is having a review of committees.

A part of the discussion included whether or not watching a meeting after the fact counts as attending a meeting.

Chesler said the purpose of the attendance requirement is to ensure a quorum, but it seems a bit irrelevant, particularly when it comes to whether an absence is voted on to be excused or not. Dority said that having excused absences might help create a track record if that 25% is reached and a member might have been consecutively ill or had another valid reason.

The issue was tabled while Dority checked on procedure.

RECENT REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS

BAR HARBOR

One Bridge Street LLC, to Richard H. Ross and Jessica Berk Ross, Clifton, Va., as joint tenants, land with any and all structures and improvements.
Carter Family MDI LLC, Bar Harbor, to Dayana Krawchuck and Basile Tarchini, Bar Harbor, as joint tenants, land with any and all structures and improvements.
Piece of the Rock Builders LLC, Bar Harbor, to Ethan C. Anderson and Jennifer R. Walker, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania., as joint tenants, land with buildings and improvements.
Hilary Hodgdon, Seal Cove, to Finback on Cottage, Bar Harbor, land with buildings or improvements.
Finback on Cottage LLC, Bar Harbor, to Joanna Fogg and Jesse Fogg, Bar Harbor, as joint tenants, land with improvements.
Ross LLC, Ellsworth, to Eden Street LLC, Bar Harbor, land with improvements.
Kyle Richardson and Nicole Richardson, Bar Harbor, to Richardson Rental Properties LLC, Bar Harbor, land with any improvements.

SOUTHWEST HARBOR

John Christopher Groobey and Carolyn Bloemker Groobey, Miami, Florida., to the John Christopher Groobey Revocable Trust, dated May 23, 2023, and the Carolyn Bloemker Groobey Revocable Trust, dated May 23, 2023, Miami, Florida., as tenants in common, land with buildings and improvements.

TRENTON

Mary Buffler, Stafford, Virginia, to Siino Properties LLC, Ellsworth, land with improvements.
Sharon E. Worcester and Gary W. Haslam, Ellsworth, to Jonathan Bates, Ellsworth, land with any buildings.