Parking Rules for Tour Operators May Change in Bar Harbor
Council also considers changing how it elects its own officers
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BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Everal Eaton has asked for collaborative discussion with the Bar Harbor Town Council over a potential new ordinance that would change the rules for tour vehicle operations in the town, which hosts millions of tourists headed to Acadia National Park each year.
“If we could have conversations as stakeholders and a phased in approach, that would be very helpful,” Eaton said.
The potential new ordinance, currently titled “Tour Vehicle Operations” would replace the current cruise ship tour bus and tour vehicle policy, said Town Manager James Smith.
“It’s codified now in ordinance and it recognizes fees for these spaces whereas the policy didn’t capture the fees before,” Smith said.
Currently, Harbormaster and Bar Harbor Police Captain Chris Wharff explained, “There’s more specificity to this in terms of like before we would just block an area and it was free use for anybody who would run tours. Whereas now we’re going to have to get a little more specific in that ‘these are your spaces,’ ‘these are your spaces,’ ‘this is your staging area.’ So, it’s a little more specific in that nature. In recognizing fees you have to be.”
“Operationally, it would function the same as it has,” Smith said.
It proposes charging tour operators for designated loading spaces the same amount of revenue that the space (or spaces) would create for 13 hours if it was being used by individual vehicles.
“Anybody else who uses a parking space in the town of Bar Harbor pays a permit fee for using that space,” if that person is using that space for a special purpose other than parking and requires the police to block off that space, Wharff said.
Smith said the staff wanted to put it to paper and see what the council’s inclination was.
The ordinance charges tour operators for cruise ship bus passengers for the full 13-hour day. They would not be in that space for the entire day, but for the times when they load and unload passengers.
The permit fee would be the same as someone who reserved parking for a special event.
The town would also require tour bus operators to meet with town staff and the chamber of commerce every year.
It also creates a fee of up to $500 per violation.
According to the packet submitted with the town materials, “It also would institute fees for blocking off paid parking spaces, calculated the same way as the existing permits for blocking off parking for construction activities or special events. In addition to tour operations connected with cruise ship visitation, it also applies to the bicycle and kayak tour businesses.”
If it applies to other businesses is still up in the air.
During the workshop, Council Chair Valerie Peacock asked about if the town wanted to include all tours (such as small and privately owned such as the Cadillac Shuttle) or only cruise-ship related buses.
Wharff said there is a “pretty sizable number” of non-cruise buses that come into town that run tours for land-based visitors in the fall. His original intent, he said, was that it only would apply to cruise tours.
They also discussed the small electric Gems, which are rented, and vehicles for hire. Gems who do not park legally get tickets, Wharff said when questioned.
"It's an interesting question because maybe we should make it cheaper to incentivize the use of buses and public transportation over individual cars. But it's also a business using town property to make money, so maybe we need to charge more," Peacock said.
Tour vehicles are defined as “a commercial-plated motor vehicle designed to carry 15 passengers or more, including the operator.” A tour operator is defined as “a business that offers paid-for tours of the local area that are facilitated by the use of buses and other vehicles.”
Councilor Earl Brechlin said if the proposal goes forward, then it should be phased in. Town Manager James Smith said another potential measure would be to waive the fees for the first year.
"For all of us in the industry, we just halved our revenue. We have half the ships this year that we had last year and so we're already getting beat up pretty good by it," Duncan Holley of Destinations North America.
Holley said he had a lot of thoughts and could discuss how operations work so councilors could be informed.
“That is something we are definitely paying attention to,” he said.
There are nitty-gritty details that the councilors need to understand, such as that the buses have to move every 30 minutes now, Holley advised. He said his business would like to be treated equally with over land buses, which use Agamont Park. He asked if a dedicated staff person would be there to make sure that the spaces paid for by a bus for 13 hours, used for 15 minute segments, would always be open.
There is a cruise ship fee that’s paid to the town to support operations. That’s why there hasn’t been fees for the tour buses parking historically, he said.
“There is a fee already being paid to the town by the industry to support its operations,” he said.
“We are already getting beat up,” he said, which is not the council’s problem he knows, because of cruise ship limits. He also doesn’t think buses that are staging should be moved. Every time you move a bus, you impact congestion, the environment, and safety, he said.
"All of us have already built contracts for the year and a surprise price was not something anybody was looking forward to," Holley said. "In my case it could very easily become tens of thousands of dollars a year."
“We are getting beat up by the fewer cruise ships coming in,” Lauren Tucker of Acadia Bike and Coastal Kayaking tours agreed.
"We also understand the town's position, we're not opposed to doing something different. We just ask that there is a stakeholder conversation before things move forward so that we can all be a part of the conversation and talk about the mechanics of it because I think there's a lot more that goes into the bigger picture," Tucker said.
CHAMBER’S CONCERNS
Eaton submitted an email to the council listing the chamber’s concerns.
“We urge the Town of Bar Harbor to convene a meeting with the stakeholders outlined in Section 9. Annual Meeting Requirement,” Eaton wrote. “The goal of this meeting would be to collaboratively discuss and craft an ordinance that effectively addresses the Town's needs while acknowledging and respecting the operational realities faced by Bar Harbor's tour vehicle operators.”
His concerns, presented in bullet points were about immediate fee implementation, a 13-hour parking window and fee structure, current inefficiencies in the town’s parking requirements, lack of clarity on shared parking billing, and challenges with a potential 15-minute wait time on West Street.
Eaton worried that the immediate fee implementation is significant and “presents a considerable challenge for many tour vehicle operators. Given that contracts, staffing, and pricing structures were finalized months ago, introducing this fee as the season commences leaves businesses with insufficient time to adjust their models, creating undue financial hardship.”
The 13-hour fee structure was inequitable, he said, particularly for those who mainly served passengers from cruise ships. Those ships generally leave by the late afternoon.
“There is no operational necessity to reserve parking for the entirety of this period, and a shorter duration would allow the town to utilize these spaces for other purposes in the evening,” he wrote.
He also said that the current parking requirements make it so that vehicles have to move in unnecessary ways. He gave the movements between the Agamont lot and Ells’ Pier as an example.
“This inflates the number of parking hours and spaces seemingly used. For instance, an operator with two buses in town for six hours could effectively be charged for four spaces for 13 hours due to these required movements,” he wrote.
Lack of Clarity on Shared Parking Billing: Further clarification is required regarding how shared parking arrangements among multiple operators will be billed. Transparency and fairness in this aspect are essential.
Challenges with the 15-Minute Wait Time on West Street:
Operational Impracticality: A 15-minute limit is operationally insufficient. It does not allow adequate time for the disembarking and boarding of full tours, necessary vehicle cleaning, and a brief break for the driver. This timeframe does not align with practical operational realities.
Unintended Consequences of Movement Requirement: Mandating vehicles to leave and subsequently return to the same location between tours generates unnecessary traffic congestion, increases environmental impact, and introduces avoidable safety concerns. Allowing vehicles to remain stationary would mitigate these issues.
Vice Chair Maya Caines wondered if there was a future scenario when there were more buses and less cars and because “there might be a world where we actually want more spots taken up by tour buses” because they want less individual vehicle congestion on the island. For that reason, she thought the council should think of opening it to other operations not just cruise-ship-related buses.
This, she said, feels counterintuitive, she knows. She also mentioned spreading out the buses in downtown to help for bicyclists traveling on the congested West Street.
COUNCIL LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS
Another draft proposal discussed at the workshop would create what it says is a “structured and transparent process for electing council leadership that promotes fairness, accountability, and consistency.”
That process would include secret ballots that are destroyed after the meeting.
In the past, council chair and vice chair were nominated individually from the floor (as are other committees and bodies) and there is a hand or verbal vote.
The new proposal would require a councilor declare their intent to serve as chair at the organizational meeting, which happens each year after election. That declaration would also include “the name of a consenting councilor to serve as vice chair.”
As proposed, multiple chair nominees could have had the same vice chair on their intention declarations. A vice chair could also be a chair nominee.
That possibility was changed after multiple councilors said they’d prefer to elect officers separately rather than as a slate.
“Agreement to serve as vice chair does not imply endorsement of a chair candidate’s platform,” the draft document writes.
It does not specify how, what, where or why a town councilor’s platform might be conveyed or if it would.
The town clerk would distribute and count ballots.
A ticket would have to receive a majority of votes cast for that chair and vice chair to be elected.
If there is no majority, then the ticket with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voting continues until there is a majority.
Peacock said that the workshop was just the beginning of the conversation.
Councilor Matt Hochman said the change felt like micromanagement and he didn’t see the need for it. He also didn’t like the idea of self-nomination, which he said is different than reaching out to other councilors and seeing if there was support.
Peacock said it’s an awkward space and that people should be able to nominate themselves and tell councilors why they want to be chair.
Smith said that with seven individuals you want it as depoliticized as possible, especially when it’s via a ballot vote.
Caines said she thought it was aligned with how most boards and committees elect chairs and vice chairs. She said the only thing she thought was tricky was the vice chair nomination along with the chair.
Brechlin said pitching the two together is difficult and it’s better to unhinge the two.
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