In Bar Harbor, Council Unveils Potential New Cruise Ship Plan
Plan includes cruise-free days, monthly and daily caps
BAR HARBOR—In the same week that the town’s code enforcement officer issued a notice of violation to a property where cruise ship passengers disembark and amidst multiple lawsuits about the town’s current cruise ship rules, the Bar Harbor Town Council shared a new proposal that could potentially replace the 1,000-a-day passenger limits that were approved by voters after a citizens’ initiative back in November 2022.
In order for the changes to happen, the voters would first have to repeal the current ordinance, which is embedded in the town’s Land Use Ordinance.
“We know a lot more about this issue than we did two years ago,” Councilor Earl Brechlin said during the meeting after a Town Council presentation by Chair Valerie Peacock.
What they know now has been informed by court decisions, conversations in the community, and in the council, he said.
“That vote two years ago was not to ban cruise ships, it was to manage cruise ships, and the fact of the matter is that we now know that 1,000 basically is a ban.” Brechlin said. “This isn’t APPLL’s plan. We didn’t ask APPLL for permission for any of this. And this isn’t the anti-cruise ships folks that are happy that 1,000 a day is basically is a ban. This is what we think is the Town of Bar Harbor’s plan.”
THE NUMBERS AND THE PROPOSAL
To understand the plan and the numbers, people have to understand the terms used. Lower berth capacity (LBC) is a standardized number which is an approximation of the passengers. It is not an exact count but a fixed number that relates to the size of the ship. In the past, the town managed cruise ship visitation through its reservation system and understood the size of ships via the LBC. It proposes to do that again.
Disembarkation numbers can be independent of the actual size of the ship and require a counting mechanism, Peacock said.
Under the proposed plan, there would be ten guaranteed cruise ship free days in both September and October and an estimated average of 20 cruise ship free days per month in May through August as a function of daily monthly caps. The maximum ship size is regulated through the daily cap.
In the new plan, there would be daily caps, monthly caps, a maximum annual cap and seasonal caps. The current plan has no monthly, annual or seasonal caps in the same sense, but has a daily cap of 1,000 disembarkations.
The new ordinance would create a seasonal cap from the last week of April through the first week of August, have a maximum 3,200 lower berth capacity ship allowed, a daily cap of 3,200, an annual cap of 200,000, and monthly caps that vary by season and month.
From May through August there would be a 20,000 monthly cap; in September and October there would be a 55,000 monthly cap, and in April and November there would be a 5,000 a month cap.
Those numbers drew worries from some attending, who stressed that the shoulder seasons of spring and fall were essential for the survival of many businesses.
“Born and raised Mainer, year-round Bar Harbor resident, tribal member of the Maliseet first nation, and business owner,” Darren Stavnesli began. “It kills me that we’re here doing this. That cruise ships are even a topic—cruise ships that have been coming here longer than some of the people who now live here. Tourists coming to a tourist destination to the most accessible national park in the country. What a shock.”
He said that he found irony in the situation. “People want to experience MDI and who are you to attempt to stop them?”
As Mainers it’s our job to welcome people, regardless of who they are and how they get here, he said. He said he was not a super fan of the new ordinance, but that it was better than the current one.
“I would agree with Earl. This is not APPLL’s plan,” Kristi Bond, Bar Harbor resident, president of APPLL and co-owner of FishMaine Restaurant Group said. “Seven ship days in the month of June is frightening. That’s a scary, scary thought. May, June, April, November, those are some of the slowest months we have.”
That part of track two concerns her, she said. APPLL is the group, along with others, that sued the town over the current cruise ship rules. The town won that suit. It is currently being appealed.
“There are business owners that are going to go out of business if the citizens’ initiative stays,” Bond said. Some people may not take out leases on properties again because of the combined impact of higher taxes and lower cruise ship visitation. “I would encourage the voters to think about their neighbors. I’ve been told by people in this room that I don’t deserve to make a living. I don’t think that’s the way we want to behave in Bar Harbor. I hope that everybody can look at track two as a way for us to move forward and, hopefully, for us all to be able to get along.”
Others were uncomfortable with the numbers as being too large. Councilor Maya Caines asked about potentially increasing fees on ships as well.
“These numbers are challenging to swallow for me, truthfully,” Caines said.
Ed Damm, Anne Damm, Charles Sidman, and James O’Connell all spoke in support of the original 1,000-a-day limit. The Damms once owned a business on West Street. Sidman currently owns an art gallery on Mount Desert Street and was the lead petitioner in the citizens’ initiative and defendant intervenor in the case against the town.
“This Town Council has chosen to wave the white flag to Ocean Properties instead of fighting, carrying the American flag of democracy,” O’Connell said. He said the voters signified what is tolerable via the November 2022 vote for 1,000-daily caps. He said, “Do not try and surrender the health and welfare of this town to corporate interests.”
Guy Dunphey said that he was concerned that the fees involved with cruise ships were not high enough and said that September is not part of the shoulder season and would like to see lower numbers in September.
“We already voted,” O’Connell stressed, referencing the November 2022 vote to approve the daily limits of 1,000.
Anne Damm suggested the town begin to look at using the ferry terminal space, which it owns, as a place to tender cruise ship passengers itself. Track two would not prevent that from happening, Smith said.
“It feels like the calm after the storm. It’s a perfect time to add more of a plan,” Anne Damm said.
“It’s really a win-win for Bar Harbor no matter how it plays out,” Councilor Matthew Hochman said earlier in the meeting. “This is really an exercise in looking at the two plans and seeing which one you prefer.”
There will be reductions either way, Hochman said.
The track-two contract approach (Chapter 50) proposes removing the current regulation from the LUO and amending it on the ballot, adopting a council-initiated ordinance governing visitation. It would stipulate that cruise lines can’t visit without a license, dock owners can’t disembark a cruise ship without a contract with the town.
There would be clear terms of the licenses that can be promptly enforced, Peacock said. “The town sets out the limits and operating procedures and cruise lines and dock owners agree to abide.”
All of this would be done via the town entering five-year contracts with each cruise line. Another contract would occur between the town and the property owner where the passengers disembark.
Sidman said that he is not convinced the original ordinance has been implemented and said that all public hearings should be predicated on having the full materials available for the public response. Track two, this new plan, has potential merit, he said, but believes it is critical for the citizenry to maintain their voice.
Councilor Shank said that in the 2021 survey of town residents that most of those surveyed who had negative feelings about cruise ships had the strongest desire to have cruise-ship-free days. This proposal, said Peacock, would guarantee at least 10 cruise free days in September and October and an estimated 20 days in May, June, and August and no days in July.
That worried some people like Heather Davis, an APPLL board member who co-owns Geddy’s with her husband Arthur and grew up in Bar Harbor. Her family came in 1968. Her dad was the first band conductor for MDI.
“I just love this town so much.” She said she feels for people who oppose cruise ships. “Cruise ships are our lifeline. My mom was a waitress in Bar Harbor. My life depended on her tips. We have a lot of moms that have children that are depending on the tips they are making with all these cruise ships that are coming in.”
She also spoke about the difficulties for many who work to get to Council meetings. This is especially true in the summer months and for those who work in hospitality—the industry directly impacted by visitation. Earlier in the meeting, Susan Basta Stanley implored residents to come into local businesses and support them so that those businesses can survive.
“We work so hard. We don’t have any time off. We can’t come here to even, you know, understand some of the things that are going on. You know, because we just don’t have time to do some of the things cause we’re just trying to survive a lot of times especially with COVID that happened. We’re all very nervous,” Davis said. The people in hospitality in the Town Council chamber, she said, have a lot in common. They love Bar Harbor. She hoped for another commonality. “One other thing that we should have in common is a love of people. Everyone should have the right to come to here whether they come by car, bus, train.” Or, she added, by cruise ship.
Bar Harbor, Davis said, has been a cruise ship town for years, and kids like her would roller skate around downtown, celebrating the arrivals. “People loved it.” She said with quality management, tools, and people that care, Bar Harbor can be both welcoming and thriving.
Business owner, Shawn Porter, who read a letter from her daughter to the councilors, said that limiting cruise ship visitation doesn’t just harm store owners in Bar Harbor, but the people and non-profits that those businesses support. She advocated allowing cruise ships for the entire months of April and November.
Heather Sorokin, a former business owner, also said she’d like councilors to consider allowing visitations during those months. She also advocating picking clear days where there would be no cruise ships—no holidays, no Saturdays and Sundays, potentially—which she said might alleviate some of the stress that people have over the arrivals.
In the town’s budget year that ran from 2022-23, the town took in $1,278,060 in cruise ship revenue. In 2023-24 that number was $1,166,066.
The last cruise ship management plan prior to the citizens’ initiative called for daily caps ranging from 3,500 to 3,800 and monthly caps ranging from 30,000 in May and June; 40,000 in July and August: and 65,000 in October and September.
THE TRACKS AND HOW IT IS CURRENTLY WORKING
At the beginning of the Town Council presentation that Peacock read, she and Town Manager James Smith explained that there are two tracks the town is pursuing about cruise ship disembarkations.
Track one is implementing the current cruise ship policy, Chapter 52, which was voted on in November 2022 and creates a permitted use of disembarking passengers across a property. It indirectly limits disembarkation over all permitted docks by stating the town may go to court to collect fines. The rules were enacted on June 18 and went into effect on July 18. That ordinance is embedded within the town’s land use ordinance.
There have been no applications by piers. There has been a notice of violation issued. If violations continue, the town will continue to issue notices of violation, Smith said.
When a notice of violation is issued, the pier owner has 30 days to cure the violation. If that fails to happen, the violation comes back to the Town Council and then it could go to court.
“It will become a fairly lengthy process,” Smith said.
Each day is a new day to monitor with the potential for a new violation.
“Chapter 52 is enforced and it’s in effect,” Smith said. “We have been taking reservations for 2025 subject to a disclaimer.”
Track two is the proposal discussed Tuesday night and it is a licensing and contract approach, which would be a council ordinance rather than a citizens’ initiated ordinance within the town’s land use ordinance.
Peacock explained that the land use ordinance (LUO) is not a good fit for managing visitation because land use ordinances aren’t good for “governing daily operations” and a court order is required to issue fines or stop an unlawful use, and it takes into account pre-existing nonconforming uses.The only control mechanism is the daily disembarkation cap.
Another major issue, she said is that the town is reactive rather than proactive. The dock owners are the center of activity as it is currently written.
“The town is sidelined,” she said. “The town has no inherent power to collect fines or physically stop a ship from coming or discharging passengers: a court order following a trial is required.”
Licensing, which would be used in the new version is different than permitting, which is currently used to create the caps and it is within the town’s land use. With licensing there is no assumption of a pre-existing right to do things. With permitting there can be.
Peacock said that despite the new ordinance’s 1,000-a-day passenger limit, there is a request that came in last week for next summer. The request came from a ship with 3,900 passengers. The system, as it is now, requires no conversation between the town and cruise line except to accept the reservation.
It doesn’t prevent the cruise ships from making the reservation or disincentivize the cruise line from disembarking because the fines are imposed on the property owner of the disembarkation site, she said.
Another issue she said is litigation.
“We’re running into this situation of governance by litigation,” Peacock said. There is ongoing and future challenges to the land use ordinance and when the enforcement is through litigation, the burden of proof is the town.
Disembarkation, size of ships and what they look like, how many come in a day, how often, how many days in a row, are not addressed by the current ordinance, Peacock said. However, she said, the federal court suit, which the town won in late February 2024 had some positives.
“We know we have the right to do this now, which we did not know definitively in 2022,” Peacock said.
The multi-page ordinance is summarized in the packet by a Town Manager James Smith August 2 memo, which said that the potential new policy would establish:
cruise-ship-free days,
daily disembarkation caps
monthly maximums,
annual disembarkation limits,
regulatory control and enforcement through licenses and contracts,
reduce future litigation risk.
Some of the numbers involved were highlighted in yellow in the previously released version. Those blanks were filled in during Peacock’s presentation Tuesday night.
Smith also added that the framework is “contingent upon a voter decision this November” and there will be “voter and resident input into future adjustments.”
NEXT STEPS
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
TO WATCH THE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING - August 6, 6:30 p.m.
TO WATCH THE PLANNING BOARD MEETING - August 7, 4 p.m.
TO WATCH THE TOWN COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING - August 8, 6:30 p.m.
THE MEETINGS’ LOCATION:
Location: Municipal Building, Town Council Chambers
Address: 93 Cottage Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609
Planning Board webpage: https://www.barharbormaine.gov/282/Planning-Board
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here.
Life in Bar Harbor.
We moved here 45 years ago. Things have changed. More people are here and there will always be more. Acadia National Park now has a reservation system to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain. The Trenton transportation center is expanding and at some future point there will probably be reservations to just enter Acadia National Park and possibly only by bus. I believe other national parks may already have this system. I think the National Park Service is doing what it can to both protect the park itself and the people who come to experience it.
The citizens of Bar Harbor I think are trying to protect the town and the park experience. 100 years from now, if man is still on this Earth, we will probably have more people and will have to try to figure how to share the space. Both the Park and the town will have to some way regulate numbers. You can see it this summer going into the park and seeing much of the park loop from the Precipice to Otter Point parked up in the right hand lane. This is dangerous because the left hand lane is full of cars crawling along or totally stopped waiting for a parking place. What if an ambulance had to get through?
Downtown Bar Harbor isn't that full yet but it's getting there.
We were retailers in town for 35 years.
We've seen changes tried. One way roads with diagonal parking. Just a few cruise ships per year till around 180 ships per year. Bus parking in front of stores with their engines running. Cruise ship tender boats hitting ledges and sand bars and leaving their engines running, in gear when docked. Things can get crazy here sometimes. On 3 large ship days can anyone say that Main St. is actually passible. It is almost a walking mall because the sidewalls have a hard time containing the people. Good thing we don't have a Port Authority cruise ship pier like other ports have that can handle 4 plus large ships at a time. Port Authorities can take over more land as needed.
Somehow we have to regulate this visiting experience so it is enjoyable and safe for everybody. We only have so much space on this island.
"I would agree with Earl [Brechlin]. This is not APPLL’s plan,” Kristi Bond, Bar Harbor resident, president of APPLL..."
HaHa!
When the Citizen's Initiative was voted into law, we had a full Election Day of voting and also Early Voting. If APPL and their Town Council want to overturn the voters' will then they should get their plan on the ballot and give us a fair opportunity to vote on it. Otherwise, they will add another voter suppression scheme to their current list of offenses.