New Proposed Development Hopes to Find Balance Between Preservation and Housing
What Makes a B & B a B & B: Lodging Use Amendment Poll Is Out
BAR HARBOR—When Millicent Carey was still a single woman in the 1950s, she was in love. So, she bought property, almost 200 acres on Mount Desert Island. Born and raised in New York City, the daughter of a Czechoslovakian immigrant, she jumped on it, according to her own daughter, Denise Carey Bettencourt.
“She would take my grandmother up there,” Bettencourt said of the acres that stretch out from the Crooked Road and into the town’s Town Hill Rural, Shoreland Limited Residential, Resource Protection, and Stream Protection Districts.
Her grandmother, Marie Adamova came over by boat in the middle of World War I and loved nature. In New York City, she met her husband, Joseph William Zelenka. Her daughter, Millicent, married Martin Carey. Millicent had both a nursing degree and a master’s in business from Columbia. Together, the couple restored and preserved multiple historic mansions from the Gilded Era on both Long Island and in Newport, Rhode Island. Millicent also bought the land in Maine.
“Her intention was to keep it (the land) and keep it natural until we used it or another opportunity presented itself,” Denise said.
In her nineties now, Millicent was born and raised in New York City and when Martin passed away in 2020, she combined her deed with Denise and her husband Christopher Bettencourt.
“It was time to combine forces,” Denise said.
They decided to try to make 14 house lots, not one big estate, or 100 as one developer told them they should do on the acreage, which is full of brooks and where much of it doesn’t have the subsoil to support septic systems.
“There’s been a housing crunch pretty much everywhere,” Denise said. The Bettencourts have a home in Newport, Rhode Island, which is similar to Bar Harbor. “It’s the same kind of problem there, too. We thought there might be a way to be able to give back to the community.”
“It’s not a big on top of each other kind of development. It’s an elegant way of doing it,” she said.
“Everybody is going to be able to be in touch with nature,” Christopher said.
And that’s keeping it within Millicent’s legacy.
At the Bar Harbor Planning Board meeting on Wednesday, Perry Moore presented the Bettencourt’s vision, the first of three steps that a plan of this size must go through in Bar Harbor.
The Planning Board met both in person and on Zoom Wednesday afternoon. Planning Board member J. Clark Stivers was not present for the beginning of the meeting.
Moore brought up that Planning Board member Joe Cough had engaged Moore for a project years ago, which is ongoing. Planning Board member Cosmo Nims said if Cough wasn’t financially tied to this project, he was fine with it. Others agreed.
Moore said that Millicent Carey also bought some property in Roque Bluffs and said of the family, “They have a history of stewardship of gilded era properties.”
“The property has been untouched except for the fire of ’47,” he said. “The fire break line runs along the western edge of the property.”
One expert told the Bettencourts that they could put 100 units on the property, back when they listed the property this summer. Someone else said 42. But they did a wetland inventory this summer and there are several wetlands that are considered of special significance by the Department of Environmental Protection, which means that those wetlands have buffer zones around them. This restricted the ability to use parts of the site. Most of the site is at the bottom of Town Hill and Frenchman Hill, and different areas of the site drain to different brooks and coves.
“We’ve got some unique hydrology,” Moore said.
The north and south areas of the site have shallow soils that aren’t suitable for septic. He said that there are substantive review issues that they needed input on from the Planning Board so the Bettencourts could know which direction they should proceed with creating the house lots—if any at all.
The town has a 2,000-foot limit on dead-end roads, he said. He looked at Pine Heath Road and Kitteridge Brook Road. The Kitteridge Brook Road is a mile long, he said, which is 5,280 feet. Pine Heath Road is 4,200 feet. The road he is currently working on for the Bettencourts is also 4,200 feet.
Moore said the Bettencourts need direction from the board about whether or not the members if the board members definitely wouldn’t allow it. An issue he’s heard is about fire access. He proposed that they have two cul-de-sacs on the road to increase the ability to move more fire apparatus around the site. He said that the modification standards gives the Planning Board the discretion to do so.
“We really cannot create a network of roads on the site without compromising them,” Moore said of the wetlands. “If we can’t do a 2,000 foot road, we are limited to half this site.”
The board has 10 days to make a decision on the modification of standards. Planning Director Michele Gagnon suggested they speak to the fire chief first.
Cough said that the fire chief would potentially look at it as a benefit to fight a forest fire to get deeper into an area and help extinguish it. He said he liked the idea of a couple of cul-de-sacs along the way.
Planning Board member Zachary Soares said that when fighting a rural fire, the department is bringing tankers in and shuttling them in, really quickly. He said they had to talk to Fire Chief Matt Bartlett and have him involved.
Moore said if they can’t get into the site, it might not be a viable project. At the same time, he doesn’t want to waste the clients’ money designing a road that wouldn’t be allowed.
Soares said he leaned toward not supporting a longer road, but he would need more information to make that decision. Others didn’t lean against the longer road.
The other issue Moore wanted direction on was the site visibility on that stretch of the Crooked Road. Lot One is across from Fern Meadow Road’s entrance from the Crooked Road. There is, however, a ledge there, which would make it difficult to build out from.
He advised the Planning Board that he has submitted an application for a building permit to get into the site to drill for a water study.
He’d also like to have a neighborhood meeting about the project and to have it at the Town Hill community building. They’ve only laid out the road about 700 feet into the site, but he can do that before they meet for a site inspection.
PUBLIC COMMENT
During public comment, Laureen Donnelly, who neighbors the area, said, “For all the water that’s on there, I think it’s been sensitively done.”
She said she had concerns about a flood plain map that showed an awful lot of water going through that. She said that map is not in the Planning Department, but she is concerned about the infrastructure that might go in there. “We’re having a tendency to have floods and this might be a dangerous area.”
Moore said that Betsey’s Brook is in the flood zone and he agrees with Donnelly. The ordinance provides for preparing for a 25-year storm.
“We’re going to have a number that’s bigger than the ordinance requires,” he said. “We’ve had 500-year events in the last ten years. I’m the last person who wants one of his projects blown out by a storm.”
The 75-foot buffer around wetlands of significance would effectively work as an easement, Moore said.
HOUSING NEEDS
Bar Harbor’s population has increased from 4,820 in 2000 to 5.527 in 2020. It’s projected that by 2038, it will have more than 6,000 residents, an increase of 15%.
It’s estimated that Bar Harbor needs over 600 housing units by 2033.
KAMPGROUNDS OF AMERICA
Kampgrounds of America came before the board to have a minor site plan review rather than a major site plan review for a small change on two lots.
“You can only have one minor every three years,” Gagnon said. “They are simply asking to change one type of impervious surface to another.”
It’s about changing 27,000 square feet of impervious surface in the two lots involved. Rather than gravel and surface mix, which was in the original plan, it would be a true grid construction that wouldn’t require maintenance.
It was unanimously approved.
LODGING POLL AND LISTENING SESSION
A lodging poll is now available and will be until October 31.
The poll relates to lodging uses and a possible LUO amendment.
Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain is also holding a listening session October 19 about the potential lodging uses amendment.
TOWN COUNCIL HOUSING AND TOURISM WORKSHOP
The Bar Town Council will hold a joint workshop with the Planning Board on Tuesday, October 10, 6:00 p.m., Town Council Chambers.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Sketch plan application (submitted 09.07.2023 and revised on 09.25.2023)
https://www.townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=37&id=49575
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10042023-3290
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/282/Planning-Board
We’d hoped to have comment from Bar Harbor Fire Chief Matthew Bartlett for this story. However, he’s been busy for the last two days. When we receive comment, we’ll update the story.
"But they did a wetland inventory this summer and there are several wetlands that are considered of special significance by the Department of Environmental Protection, which means that those wetlands have buffer zones around them."
How fortunate MDI is to have neighbors like these good stewards, who seem to be doing their best to balance environmental and development needs. ThankYou.
What a refreshing departure from so many who dominate the discussion and policy making here. That is those more in step with neighbor Leonard Leo - whose Supreme Extremes recently rolled back EPA wetlands protections.