Letter From a Reader
David C. Witham.
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An Open Letter to the Residents of Bar Harbor, Town Council, Planning Department, and Planning Board
I would like to respectfully share my unsolicited thoughts on the current zoning changes being proposed for the lodging industry here in town.
I want to first acknowledge the tremendous amount of work undertaken to date by the Town boards, and more significantly, the planning department. An incredible amount of information has been researched and digested to help formulate new zoning language that achieves the Town’s goals for a more comprehensive ordinance regulating lodging uses here in Town.
As we are all aware, the Town enacted a lodging moratorium some time ago to allow for the time needed to address challenges and pressures created by recently completed lodging projects and others in the pipeline. There is now a counter-pressure to lift the moratorium, driven by a sentiment among many that it has been in place long enough.
However, despite great strides made on the proposed zoning amendments, the overall body of work is not yet ready for a vote. Consider the timeline for the Town’s employee housing zoning: discussions began in 2016, and it took four years before the language went to a Town vote. The result, in my opinion, is one of the most progressive housing ordinances of its kind in all of New England, now regarded as a model for other communities.
Given this precedent, I believe it is in the best interest of all parties — residents and businesses alike — to extend the moratorium for another voting cycle.
Recently, I shared this position with several lodging owners in the community, expecting a strong rebuttal. To my surprise, there was broad support for extending the moratorium among this group, which as a whole represents the majority of our local lodging sector. There was a shared awareness that we need to get this right, for both the short and long-term health of the community and the lodging sector.
Zoning changes take time. Changes to zoning once amended take even greater time — if they happen at all.
Let us, as a community, get this right by creating more opportunities for open dialogue and a clearer shared understanding of the zoning language being proposed, so we can make a final, well-informed push. Let us be certain that the zoning amendments ultimately put before the Town for a vote are indeed the amendments that best achieve our common goals.
Thank you for your consideration.
Respectfully,
David C. Witham
Witham Family Hotels
Do it right the first time makes sense. Well written letter to boot.