Planning Board Takes on Moratorium Work
First workshop focuses mostly on preliminary data
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.
BAR HARBOR—Now that the town council has enacted a 180-day moratorium on lodging uses, the volunteer Bar Harbor Planning Board is tasked with looking at the land use aspects of the work.
“The council approved extending the moratorium for another 180 days. The chair spoke quite eloquently, I thought, about the areas we’re going to be involved in. Things like density issues downtown, things like building height, whether or not some forms of lodging should be allowed close to schools, those sorts of issues,” Planning Board Chair Millard Dority told board members, February 5.
The work and tasks for the planning board are laid out in the town-council-approved work plan, which calls for the board to analyze and identify issues related to the commercial, residential, and mixed uses in each of the town’s many zoning districts as well as look at an inventory of both the lodging and dwelling units in the town.
The planning board’s work isn’t about people or personality, Dority said at the board’s February 27 workshop.
The moratorium comes after multiple residents and former town councilor Gary Friedmann (now state rep, D-Bar Harbor) indicated worries about a proposed lodging that would abut school property, which is legally zoned for that use. The fall conversation and push toward a moratorium also focused on fears that lodging was cannibalizing existing homes either through conversion to rentals, bed and breakfasts, hotels, and inns or by a home’s removal on a lot to allow for building.
Residents who did not want a moratorium expressed that they felt like lodging was being singled out as a reason for the housing need in the community as well as that particular hoteliers were as well. They called for data to show if there were more or less hotel rooms in town, more or less beds, and if existing homes had been converted to lodging uses or other uses such as short-term rentals, employee housing (for any sort of business), summer homes, and so on.
The existing moratorium does not cover short-term vacation rentals. The town has already capped short-term rentals that are not occupied by owners (VR-2). It has not capped short-term rentals that are the owners’ primary residence (VR-1).
This past Thursday, the planning board held its first workshop to look at the issues and the data.
“We know we don’t want a free-for-all and we know we don’t want nothing to happen,” Dority said to those attending the 10 a.m. workshop.
It’s about delineating what the problem is and determining what they can do to fix it, he said.
Delineating and understanding the problem has begun with the town’s planning staff.
“A lot of the stat analysis will take more time than just today,” Bar Harbor Housing and Community Planner Cali Martinez said.
The town’s planning staff is still collecting data and as that moves forward, staff members are uncovering more questions with more data needs.
Even something as simple as a pie-graph showing the amount of land in Bar Harbor that’s used for lodging might be misleading because it includes campgrounds or yurt-campgrounds or tent-sites. Similarly, there are lots and buildings that are used for commercial use as well as apartments. Would those be categorized under commercial or residential or both?
An assessor and a planner might categorize things differently. Jackson Laboratory (JAX) has been considered commercial and Mount Desert Biological Laboratories might be considered charitable non-profit by an outside agency categorizing Bar Harbor property uses. Even understanding ownership can be time consuming.
“Bar Harbor is full of trusts and full of LLCs,” Planning Director Michele Gagnon said. Some of those are Bar Harbor residents. Some are not. Determining that can take time.
Early data shows that the highest number of rooms is downtown. The area is also where the highest number of properties are. The next highest location for number of rooms is in Ireson Hill (rooms), but Salisbury Cove is the second for number of facilities. Within the downtown district itself most of the rooms—643—are in the Bar Harbor Gateway area, which is the strip heading into town rather than in downtown proper itself.
The staff worked together to take the land use map in clusters of residential development to see what the impact levels are. One map shows current active lodging areas with a 300 foot buffer downtown. In the more rural areas, staff did similar work with 500 feet and/or 2,000 feet buffers. Staff also looked at buffers with environmental areas.
“This is still very, very in its infancy,” Gagnon said.
“It’s great though,” Dority said. “It’s nice to see this stuff pulled together.”
“It all goes back to what question are we trying to look into here,” Martinez said.
Is it people? Is it housing? Is it something else?
“This whole discussion is kind of based on overcrowding,” planning board member Guy Dunphey said.
Board members were enthusiastic when Martinez and staff planner Hailey Bondy unveiled the graphs and maps that are still being worked on. New staff planner Cameron Sands also worked on the data collection and visualizations.
“Amazing.”
“Wow.”
“That’s great work.”
Dority said it would be nice to know about the town’s capacity to grow in different areas.
“Wasn’t it one of the reasons for the moratorium?” Code Enforcement Officer Michael Gurtler asked.
Gagnon said they had a conversation with public works and will have another and that there will be a presentation to the future to the board.
Water pressure is a big component of understanding infrastructure capacity. Storm water capacity should also be included, Gurtler said.
The group will have Police Chief David Kerns, Fire Chief Matt Bartlett, and Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt in for its next meeting to learn if there are growth, infrastructure, emergency response issues, or other issues from the department heads’ perspectives.
Currently, staff said that the number of hotel rooms total is just under 3,000. Earlier data, they said, referencing town documents had some duplications. The town is collecting how many occupants can actually stay in each VR-2. Now when someone applies for a VR-2, they are required to submit their maximum capacity.
“We need to base our decisions on facts,” Dority said.
Six members of the public attended the February 27 workshop as did five staff members and four planning board members.
Photos: Carrie Jones/Shaun Farrar
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Housing Policy Framework V2 (adopted by the Town Council in 2023)
2025 Workplan (supported by the Town Council in January of 2025)
Growth Area Map (from the 2007 Comprehensive Plan)
Future Land Use Map (from the 2007 Comprehensive Plan)
Salisbury Cove Report: Prepared by the College of the Atlantic
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