Ms. Chamberlain raises interesting and valid points regarding the proposed short-term rental changes to Chapter 174 in the Municipal Code.
The question we should ask ourselves is, will the desire to find and eliminate every noncompliant home owner through overbearing town government oversight to somehow gain increased year round rental stocks (as if limiting STR’s has truly had that effect) at the expense of the established known valid owners trying to make ends meet in an increasingly expensive housing environment?
Going after the statistically nominal home owner skirting STR rules this way is an intrusive heavy handed way to go about solving housing shortages and is a negative message our councilors would do well to avoid.
While I agree with Angie Chamberlain's concerns about changes in the LUO, I also know that the property at 104 Ledgelawn Avenue is not occupied by the owner, who is living in southern Maine, while claiming to live in Bar Harbor. That property has been divided so that the rear portion and second floor is rented to other persons and the front portion of the first floor is an STR. Showing a power bill with the owner's name on it proves nothing if the owner is actually paying the bill. It has been brought to the town's attention but nothing has been done. How can this type of situation be rectified?
I’d welcome a slightly more dense “village center” around the town hill market area (including mixed use commercial and multi-family housing) if we had the infrastructure to support it (such as extending the somesville sewer to the town hill village center). Allowing some more pockets of density is a tool to fight sprawl.
Angie Chamberlain has this right. I appreciate her vast land use knowledge and her willingness to put this out here for all of us to consider.
Ms. Chamberlain raises interesting and valid points regarding the proposed short-term rental changes to Chapter 174 in the Municipal Code.
The question we should ask ourselves is, will the desire to find and eliminate every noncompliant home owner through overbearing town government oversight to somehow gain increased year round rental stocks (as if limiting STR’s has truly had that effect) at the expense of the established known valid owners trying to make ends meet in an increasingly expensive housing environment?
Going after the statistically nominal home owner skirting STR rules this way is an intrusive heavy handed way to go about solving housing shortages and is a negative message our councilors would do well to avoid.
While I agree with Angie Chamberlain's concerns about changes in the LUO, I also know that the property at 104 Ledgelawn Avenue is not occupied by the owner, who is living in southern Maine, while claiming to live in Bar Harbor. That property has been divided so that the rear portion and second floor is rented to other persons and the front portion of the first floor is an STR. Showing a power bill with the owner's name on it proves nothing if the owner is actually paying the bill. It has been brought to the town's attention but nothing has been done. How can this type of situation be rectified?
I’d welcome a slightly more dense “village center” around the town hill market area (including mixed use commercial and multi-family housing) if we had the infrastructure to support it (such as extending the somesville sewer to the town hill village center). Allowing some more pockets of density is a tool to fight sprawl.