Letter From A Reader

November 24

The letter below was originally sent to the Bar Harbor Town Council and others, such as the Bar Harbor Story. VR-1’s (for those of you who do not live in Bar Harbor) is defined as “a dwelling unit, or portion thereof, that is the primary residence of the property owner or on the owner’s primary residence property and is rented to a person or a group for less than 30 days and a minimum of two nights. The rental of a portion of the dwelling, such as a bedroom, must be located in the principal structure housing the dwelling unit.” The article passed in 2021 is here.

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WORRIES OVER VR-1’s

Dear Town Councilors:

I am writing to discuss my problems with VR-1’s as they impact our tourism, housing, and general quality of life in Bar Harbor.

As a citizen who has been involved with our Land Use Ordinance for the past 25 years, I want to start by raising the question of zoning districts. Why have them? Why do we designate some areas as residential, some as business, some as agricultural, etc., and are these designations important?

I personally think we have them for good reasons and that respecting the differences in zoning is important. We expect that where growth, housing, businesses, or farms develop and are encouraged will define what we expect will be the nature of the area. When an area is used for something quite different from what is expected, it can influence the quality of life in the area.

Our present LUO stipulation for VR-1’s allows every house in the residential zones to be a potential business. Since we are allowed to rent our primary residences three times a week with no limitation on the number of people who can be included in each reservation, a house could rent to perhaps 10 people three times a week, bringing potentially 30 people to a house in one week. How does this affect our water, sewer, parking and trash?  If it is an area not on town water or sewer, how does this affect the water table in the area where the adjacent houses use the same water source for their wells? And how will a septic system designed and permitted for a household of six handle repeated rental groups of up to 10? Third, if just two of the renters have cars, where on an already crowded street like Ledgelawn will those cars be parked?  Assuredly, there is no room on the street, and the garages aren’t big enough for so many cars at a time. And how does this affect the amount of trash we accumulate in a week?

Furthermore, with our new permission for people to build another structure on their property (which theoretically cannot be used for rental nor sold separately from the primary dwelling on the property), what is to prevent the owner from moving into this new structure for the season, and then renting the primary residence as a VR-1?  Having served on Appeals Board for so many years, we are used to looking for the loopholes in LUO, as residents and lawyers always find them.

Lastly, we can’t ignore the changes in the quality of life in our neighborhoods. Most often in our spring, summer, and fall seasons, people are outside in their yards, gardening, barbecuing, and interacting with their neighbors. If the people who are occupying the adjacent house are total strangers, what does this do to the quality of the neighborhood? And how does it feel to the remaining neighbors to have what are essentially businesses taking over their neighborhoods? Wherein do these rented residential houses differ from mini-hotels, B & B’s, or rental cottages?

Our hotels, motels, inns, and B & B’s are legitimate businesses, licensed as such, and subject to business taxes. This is not the case with VR-1’s.

I think the availability of all this transient accommodation anywhere in Bar Harbor is definitely contributing to our over-population of tourists and is undermining our quality of life. If local residents need the extra income in order to pay our very high taxes, the number of rentals per week, the number of people per reservation, whether or not the house is served by town water and sewer, and control of parking all must be factored into a reconsideration of VR-1’s.

Thank you very much for your consideration,

Ellen Dohmen, Bar Harbor

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