In the attached article it references adding a warrant for Solar Pit bond for November 8th. The town vote is November 5th. Is the 8th incorrect or am I missing
We'll go double check that Barbara, but we might not be able to get it ironed out until Monday. The election itself is currently posted on the town clerk's page as November 7, 2023 which is a Tuesday and a year behind.
The first Tuesday in November in 2024 is November 5, which should be the correct date.
It seems the Town Council and Planning Board are worried the present Land Use Ordinance(LUO), can't handle enforcement.
If that is the case, can the town enforce anything in the, LUO?
If there are only going to be 1-2 small ships creating a total of 1,000 passengers total for a day it would seem possible to have 1 town employee keep track of that, just like parking enforcement officers. The officer would only need to be at the one dock. I wish I could say that I could trust the cruise ship or landing dock owner to keep track of passenger numbers but I wouldn't want to impose on their other duties like training lifeboat coxswains so they don't hit anything and turning off their engines when docked.
So just how is present code enforcement handled?
Could somebody please refer to a page in the LUO, that I could find it so I can see if I can understand it and any possible problems with its use?
Ed good point about the people driving the tenders. It seems interesting that in order to carry 6 passengers I had to study for months and take a 6 hour Coast Guard exam but people who don't know which end is the bow and which end is the stern are allowed to operate a vessel carrying more than 100 passengers? Back when I provided transportation to cruise ship agents and custom officials I lost count of the number of near misses made by inexperienced cruise ship tender operators.
We are getting out of litigation, that's what we are getting, and providing town staff a more robust set of tools to manage all aspects of cruise ship visitation, like it or not, the citizens initiative is sloppily written and leaves us open to lawsuits that could last decades. It also provides no monthly or yearly caps, it has a theoretical limit of 365,000 passengers per year, It also does nothing to actually cap cruise ship visitation, Should the cruise lines want they could still land 5000 passenger ships, and simply pay the fine, Our plan codifies limits with no avenue for going over the caps except for maritime emergency. And if you still feel that you want the 1000, vote no in November and that's exactly what you'll get, This is a Win/Win for Bar Harbor.
Matt, no one cares about the annual numbers. They can land 1000 people a day all winter, no one will care. People care about the mobs of cruise ship passengers disembarking from multiple ships when the town is already overcrowded with summer tourists.
This is why it's important to wait for the explanation before jumping to judgement, Under the plan we are working on there would be no multiple big ship days, Yes there could be a larger ship and a small American cruise lines ship, but no more 4000 or 5000 passenger ships ever, And fine you want to talk semantics, ;then under the citizens initiative, using the typical dates that ships are here there could be at least 206,000 passengers, and again, no actual mechanism to cap the number if the cruise lines decide to just pay the fines, Under track 2, there are actual monthly and annual caps that will keep the number below that with no way for ships to legally disgorge more passengers. It seems that your mind is made up, but I really do hope you will wait for all the details before rushing to judgement.
In the attached article it references adding a warrant for Solar Pit bond for November 8th. The town vote is November 5th. Is the 8th incorrect or am I missing
And you are right! I found it on the town's webpage. Thank you for noticing and for letting us know!
We'll go double check that Barbara, but we might not be able to get it ironed out until Monday. The election itself is currently posted on the town clerk's page as November 7, 2023 which is a Tuesday and a year behind.
The first Tuesday in November in 2024 is November 5, which should be the correct date.
So what about enforcement?
It seems the Town Council and Planning Board are worried the present Land Use Ordinance(LUO), can't handle enforcement.
If that is the case, can the town enforce anything in the, LUO?
If there are only going to be 1-2 small ships creating a total of 1,000 passengers total for a day it would seem possible to have 1 town employee keep track of that, just like parking enforcement officers. The officer would only need to be at the one dock. I wish I could say that I could trust the cruise ship or landing dock owner to keep track of passenger numbers but I wouldn't want to impose on their other duties like training lifeboat coxswains so they don't hit anything and turning off their engines when docked.
So just how is present code enforcement handled?
Could somebody please refer to a page in the LUO, that I could find it so I can see if I can understand it and any possible problems with its use?
Ed good point about the people driving the tenders. It seems interesting that in order to carry 6 passengers I had to study for months and take a 6 hour Coast Guard exam but people who don't know which end is the bow and which end is the stern are allowed to operate a vessel carrying more than 100 passengers? Back when I provided transportation to cruise ship agents and custom officials I lost count of the number of near misses made by inexperienced cruise ship tender operators.
We are getting out of litigation, that's what we are getting, and providing town staff a more robust set of tools to manage all aspects of cruise ship visitation, like it or not, the citizens initiative is sloppily written and leaves us open to lawsuits that could last decades. It also provides no monthly or yearly caps, it has a theoretical limit of 365,000 passengers per year, It also does nothing to actually cap cruise ship visitation, Should the cruise lines want they could still land 5000 passenger ships, and simply pay the fine, Our plan codifies limits with no avenue for going over the caps except for maritime emergency. And if you still feel that you want the 1000, vote no in November and that's exactly what you'll get, This is a Win/Win for Bar Harbor.
Matt, no one cares about the annual numbers. They can land 1000 people a day all winter, no one will care. People care about the mobs of cruise ship passengers disembarking from multiple ships when the town is already overcrowded with summer tourists.
This is why it's important to wait for the explanation before jumping to judgement, Under the plan we are working on there would be no multiple big ship days, Yes there could be a larger ship and a small American cruise lines ship, but no more 4000 or 5000 passenger ships ever, And fine you want to talk semantics, ;then under the citizens initiative, using the typical dates that ships are here there could be at least 206,000 passengers, and again, no actual mechanism to cap the number if the cruise lines decide to just pay the fines, Under track 2, there are actual monthly and annual caps that will keep the number below that with no way for ships to legally disgorge more passengers. It seems that your mind is made up, but I really do hope you will wait for all the details before rushing to judgement.