Potential Marina Plans Approved and They Include Cruise Tendering
Security Zone for CAT not a problem
BAR HARBOR—A potential plan for a marina on the town-owned site of the CAT ferry on Route 3 (121 Eden Street) includes a space for dedicated cruise ship tendering as well as tour bus access. Balancing multiple uses at the space elicited some worries from Harbor Committee members and the public at a Monday meeting.
Phase Two of the conceptual plan would involve a hoist for professional fishers, more public marina space, and space for offices, restrooms, and showers. There is an optional pier extension, which would allow vehicles more access to the launch. The plan provides for recreational waterfront uses and working waterfront uses as well.
The Harbor Committee unanimously voted to hold off approving the conceptual master plan until another meeting, December 18, at 4 p.m. At that meeting, members expect to have a list of concerns and thoughts to attach to the document for when it’s presented to the Town Council.
“This is still a concept level plan,” GEI’s Daniel Bannon said, and added that it still allows the town to take a big step forward. Bannon presented the plan to the Harbor Committee via Zoom on Monday night. “This gives you a path forward. This gives you a vision of the major elements of what the plan can be.”
And a path to get there, he said.
“You would have cruise tendering through this facility right away,” Bannon said. The plan also has tour bus access. It would need the south pier to be demolished in Phase One which, he said, is costly, but needed for safe access.
Committee member and former harbormaster Ed Monat asked if the whole south pier had to definitely be removed. “It seems like an awful lot of money just to remove the south pier right now.”
Just demolishing the pier, which Bannon said is necessary, would cost approximately $2 million. Bannon said that removing the whole south pier is the company’s recommendation because it’s in bad condition and potentially hazardous. He doesn’t want boaters to be encouraged to use it and possibly get hurt.
In the concept design, all the commercial uses are on the southern side of the space. The northern side is dedicated to recreational boating. The plan would potentially create a new harbormaster’s office. The current office is at the end of West Street at the town pier.
A potential Phase Three of the project would only be possible if the CAT ferry did not continue to lease the site from the town. It includes expansion of the docks for recreational boaters. It also develops the north side of the site for more parking.
“We know that this is a large and very ambitious plan,” Bannon said and it is one that the town will have to grow into. Because of that, the group created flexibility to phase in future development and accommodates mixed uses. Phase One includes a dock for cruise tendering and fuel.
Project costs would be $9.2 million for Phase One, $17.6 million for Phase Two, and $9.4 million for Phase 3. All would require permitting, which Bannon suggested starting right away.
“These are very large, expensive projects,” Bannon said. He added that there are many ways to break down the work and that the phases can each be broken down further.
Phase One, he said, could happen in the next 1 to 2 years.
He suggested the town formally adopts the masterplan, which he again stressed is conceptual and would not be a commitment to the exact plan. Many details, he said, could change in the final design.
COMMITTEE AND PUBLIC COMMENTS
Harbor Committee member Robert Garland thanked GEI for the plan. “We probably won’t be able to do everything that is shown here, but it certainly gives us a launch pad to discuss and refine from.” He was glad that tendering was put back into the master plan.
Harbor Committee Chair Kaitlyn Mullen, who is also listed as the captain/operations manager for Acadia Boat Tours, started off the committee comments and asked about Phase Two and fuel pumps access if cruise ship tenders are using the dock. She also asked about one gangway going down to the tenders, worrying about access management for when cruise ships and the public both use the space, worrying that it would be congested.
Bannon said that factors like that could cause an adjustment of service locations or having two gangways. She said that it mirrors existing services at Harbor Place and that the current use there makes it hard for the public to use fuel pumps on cruise ship days.
Former Chair Jeff Miller said he applauded the attempt to get multiple uses onto the site, a recreational marina, working waterfront, and cruise ship tendering in a small space, but had reservations.
“You can only get so much refuse in a five pound bag,” he said, “and it seems like we’re trying to get ten pounds into this bag.”
Like Mullen, Miller worried about the use of gangways and piers when passengers are offloading. “I have serious doubts about the functionality of this.”
Travis Pryor of GEI said that the next steps would be up to the community to prioritize what is the most important uses for the town.
Harbormaster Chris Wharff said tendering operations and fuel on the same dock could create issues, but a lot of the plan’s schematics would alleviate some of the issues with tendering and congestion that had occurred downtown at 1 Harbor Place.
“There’s just so much more space,” he said of the upland side of the site and added that people wouldn’t have to que up on gangways like they do downtown.
Harbor Committee member and fisherman Jon Carter said he was concerned about the boat launch and that the town might be developing something that is more than necessary. He’s worried about the sighting of the launch, its angle, and its width.
“We need to be able to get up against something solid and square,” he said of fishermen and not something at an angle like the boat launch in the concept plan. He’d prefer to look at that a bit more before a concept plan was approved. He also suggested it be narrower.
He hoped that some of those changes could help eliminate costs.
“It’s a large boat launch,” Bannon said. “It would be a premier facility,” but, he added, if the town didn’t want something that big, it didn’t have to be a two-lane lamp, which he said a few years ago had been encouraged by the committee. The angle is more efficient in terms of the site construction and grading because of more than 30 feet of elevation change. The angle also limits the impact on the land for conservation concerns. “It’s really a more efficient design to have it angled the way it is.”
The current ramp at 1 Harbor Place (the town pier) is about 16-18 feet wide, Carter said. Most people can’t launch two boats at once because they can’t back up the trailers that well, he said.
“I don’t believe we need to have it built as big as it’s being built,” Carter said. He said that he’s said this several times and his comments may be falling on “deaf ears,” but he can’t see anything that has changed.
New committee member Andrew Keblinsky said he would like to move forward and move the concept and if it needs to be tweaked for “one or two people,” then they can talk about it later. He said there were valid reasons for putting in the launch the way it is.
Keblinksy said that the marina has been talked about since 2017. “It’s 2023. That’s, what is it? Six years. It would be nice to kind of move forward.”
“It’s not a put your traps on the launch boat ramp,” he said, referencing Carter’s discussion.
He also said that adding the cruise ship tendering would only cost about $900,000.
Garland wondered about the north pier side in Phase Two and if a pile of debris under the north pier would need to be moved. Bannon said the existing pier was built with a mound, which would be a hazard to navigation and would need to be addressed, but likely wouldn’t have to be moved entirely, but moved just enough to insure adequate draft.
James O’Connell said he’s been on the water with his sailboat for 35 years and he was excited about the marina. He said that the town doesn’t know how many cruise ship passengers will be getting off cruise ships in the future.
“I think it’s going to be a very small deal going on in the future,” he said of cruise ship disembarkations, and he also supported Carter’s comments about the lobstermen’s needs for a ramp, saying that “it’s really hard on those guys,” using the less protected site at the town pier.
Dede Daigle, general manager of the Atlantic Oceanside, which is owned by David Witham relayed Witham’s comments to the committee. The hotel is to the south of the proposed marina.
Witham, through Daigle, said the Atlantic Oceanside is a strong proponent of the development of the site and supports a marina and space for working fishermen. However, the location of the boat ramp has been a concern for them. It is currently on the north side of the south causeway, which gives that ramp, which is likely to be used by professional fisherman, a separation from the Oceanside.
At the November meeting, discussion was held about moving the ramp to the southerly side of the site, which Witham said concerned him. He also expressed concern about that location’s impact in relation to the current Atlantic Oceanside waterfront activities, particularly about safety.
The cruise ship tendering is currently shown on the design as on the southern most edge of the town property.
Dessa Dancy was a member of the Ferry Terminal Property Advisory Committee when it existed and she said that the need for fishing professionals’ fueling was heard loudly and clearly.
“The needs that Jon Carter is expressing, I strongly support looking and seeing how that can be done,” she said.
She said that separating the passengers tendering into Bar Harbor (those that are going downtown tender there and those going to other areas, such as the park) would be helpful.
Gary Fagan whose boats, Acadian Nature Cruises (ANC), sail out of Atlantic Oceanside asked why in Phase Three the boats aren’t going further north toward Ocean Property’s property.
“The whole thing could go that way,” Fagan said.
Bannon said that for the time being they are limited with the CAT Ferry site but all can be tweaked and looked at further.
Fagan stressed the plan as it is doesn’t take into account the skills of the tender drivers, which he qualified as poor. He said that it would be difficult for tender drivers to get in and out of the proposed site of tendering.
“Thirty-seven feet is not a lot of room for someone to maneuver,” said Gabriela Niedalik, who also works for Acadia Nature Cruises. Thirty-seven feet is how much space would exist between the tenders and boats at the Atlantic Oceanside pier.
Niedalik, too, worried about the multiple uses at the property. “It can better support the community by doing the things that we need right now,” she said. She said that they’ve had to turn people away from landing at the Atlantic Oceanside.
“There’s a million different options to do all of this,” Wharff said and that those options can all be looked at in more detail when needs are prioritized.
All the options involve the submerged lease land.
COAST GUARD AND SECURITY CONCERNS
Both Bar Harbor Committee Vice Chair Larry Nuesslein who works for Bar Harbor Whale Watch and Bar Harbor Harbormaster Christopher Wharff said Monday night that the Coast Guard has told them there would be no problem with having the CAT and its required security zone close to the proposed Bar Harbor Public Marina.
Nuesslein said this is because there would be a fence between the CAT terminal and the marina. The CAT also has its own security plan. He received information from the Coast Guard about the plans on December 6 and emailed other Harbor Committee members with the information.
Wharff said that he also talked to the Coast Guard and said that they aren’t anticipating any issues with having the marina there because of the way the property is laid out.
At their November meeting, Harbor Committee members didn’t have immediate answers about whether a security zone of about 100 yards around the international ferry would prevent many of the options of the draft ferry plan created by Daniel Bannon of GEI, a firm the town contracted with to create a marina master plan. A Coast Guard representative was able to answer several questions, but not all for the Bar Harbor Story in an earlier article that’s linked below.
The CAT and town have recently renewed Bay Ferries’ lease through 2024.
65 SHORE ACRES
The committee unanimously approved a letter stating that it had no objection to a planned seasonal floating walkway at 65 Shore Acres Drive.
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HARBORMASTER UPDATE
“Things have slowed down pretty dramatically in our neck of the woods,” Wharff said.
About ten members of the public and three reporters also attended the meeting.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://barharbormaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12112023-3326
https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/coast-guard-weighs-in-on-cat-security
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/275/Harbor-Committee
Images via GEI and Bob Collier
Thanks for your thorough coverage of this meeting. Development of the site will be very important for the future of Bar Harbor and your coverage helps people like me to understand what is going on. Getting cruise ship tendering out of the downtown area will be very helpful. Perhaps you should ask the committee members what happens with the existing town pier. Do they expect the demand for access by lobster fishers will increase? Do they not have enough room at the town pier? Should there be so many different uses at the ferry terminal site with its narrow gangway and cruise ship tenders operating so close to the Oceanside pier? Where will all the cruise ship tour buses park while waiting for passengers to board and unboard?