Town Might Change Lodging Definitions
The Amount of Rooms in Inns & Bed and Breakfasts Could Lower To Twelve
BAR HARBOR—To many people, it seems simple. A motel is a motel. A bed and breakfast has breakfast and someone occupies it. A hotel usually has a front desk. But in Bar Harbor’s land use ordinance things aren’t always that easy.
“We’re going from an unnecessary mess of two dozen uses to four,” said Michele Gagnon of an exercise Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain provided the Bar Harbor Planning Board.
It’s a first crack at potentially changing the land use ordinances about lodging definitions, which covers things such as what is and what isn’t a bed and breakfast, a topic that has been hotly debated since even before a 45-room bed and breakfast was approved on Cottage Street. That bed and breakfast is still under construction and is built on the site of a collapsed commercial garage and former home on Summer Street.
Vice-Chair Ruth Eveland said that she’d talked about this discussion during Bar Harbor’s town meeting the night before and that the people she’d talked to were enthused.
“There were great sighs of relief,” Eveland said.
On July 5 there will be more discussion during the Planning Board’s scheduled meeting at the Bar Harbor Municipal Building. After tweaking, more discussion, public comment, and more work, the changes could be potentially before voters in June 2024.
Chamberlain said that she wanted feedback and for the Planning Board to have time to digest it all and maybe come back and discuss it at the next meeting
In the exercise, all the lodging uses were elevated to Planning Board rather than be allowed via the code enforcement office. This means the approval would be in the board’s collective hands. Those lodging uses would be bed and breakfasts, inns, motels, and hotels.
In this exercise, bed and breakfasts would be private residences, with up to 12 rooms in the innkeeper’s private dwelling. They would serve breakfast only. An inn would be similar but can serve meals that are not breakfast.
Chamberlain did not include that inns or bed and breakfasts had to be owner-occupied. Instead, she wrote that there needed to be a permanent resident of the house or an innkeeper who would occupy the house. This is because she noticed that many bed and breakfasts in town are owned by the same family or entity. To change that to only the home owners would create a lot of non-conformity in the places that currently exist.
Sixteen Bar Harbor bed and breakfasts have 12 rooms in the data she located. The largest bed and breakfast in a bed and breakfast association that Chamberlain researched had 13, some had four. She also looked at the number of rooms in other town ordinances to determine a potential maximum room number.
The definitions for motel and hotel did not change.
She looked at the ITE Parking Generation Manual for standards, which is a transportation manual for engineers to create the minimum standards for parking for each use. She kept the bed and breakfast standard, which is one for each guest room, plus one.
For hotels that standard in the proposal is 1.33 spaces per guest room. For a hotel with 20 guest rooms, 27 parking spaces are required. This is higher because often hotels have events, restaurants, and other activities.
For motels that standard in the proposal is 1.11 spaces per guest room. For a motel with 20 guest rooms, 23 parking spaces are required.
Cabins and cottages would fall under the motel use, she said.
“For the definition of a hotel, say you have an apartment and a hotel that’s occupied as a residence, that squarely doesn’t qualify it as an inn, right?” Planning Board Secretary Elissa Chesler asked.
Chamberlain said she was right.
Village historic and town hill residential districts allow some uses but only on some specific streets, Chamberlain said, which is something that the Planning Board would have to look into if they proceeded with the discussion. Would they want to have that remain the same or would they want to expand the uses to be throughout a district instead.
Planning Board member and Council candidate Earl Brechlin asked if the approach if it went through and was adopted would help slim down the number of zones in Bar Harbor. Gagnon said that one of the purposes of the exercise is that all these uses are elevated to planning board rather than code enforcement permitting. The other purpose would be seeing if they could whittle down those two dozen lodging definitions.
During public comment, current Town Councilor and Council candidate Erin Cough asked about historic cabins that are scattered throughout the villages.
Chamberlain said she made sure to capture them in her documents and said that most times they would fall under motel definitions. Cough thanked her and said she was glad to see it coming.
Bar Harbor Oceanside Campground (KOA)
In other business, the Planning Board met with a representative from KOA and held a quick public hearing on the application, which is not yet complete. There will be another public hearing on the project in July.
The application from Bar Harbor Oceanside Campground (KOA) asked for:
1) the placement of five deluxe RV cabins (Site Nos. 827- 831) in an area where six RV/camper sites were located and site restoration;
2) creation of five new RV/camper sites (Site Nos. 101-105) and site restoration;
3) removal of one tent site (Site No. 426), placement of a 3-stall bath house, and site restoration;
4) Removal of one shed within the Country Road right-of-way and site restoration;
5) Relocation of two deluxe RV cabins (Site Nos. 824-825) outside of the County Road right-of-way; and
6) Relocation of one rustic cabin (Site No. KOl) outside of the front setback.
Chair Millard Dority had questions about the wastewater disposal systems. He worried about the mitigation plan if there was a failure. The organization is currently working with Chamberlain and the state. Chamberlain said that both an emergency plan and long-term plan were both important.
Chamberlain said that the town is working with two different state agencies on the septic system issues. Because of that, she’s not sure what the timeframes will be for the project.
Dority asked if there was a plan for the existing violations and if Chamberlain felt those could be dealt with by the next month’s meeting on July 5. There will also be a completeness review at that time.
EXPLORE ACADIA COTTAGES
Steven Salisbury represented Explore Acadia LLC for its project to build nine rental cabins, an RV site, and a small office building on 937 Route 3. The property is just over 4 acres.
The board unanimously moved to waive some items from the checklist and asked for floorplans and landscaping plans and buffering. It then found the application incomplete because of a capacity letter from public works and a letter of no violations. There will be a public hearing on July 5.
HARBOR LIGHTS SUBDIVISION
The application asks to extend a district line for 50 feet, which is allowed under the town’s land use ordinance.
The application is to create 10 single-family lots on 19 acres of land located in the Hulls Cove residential and Hulls Cove rural districts at 18 Hamor Lane, which is in the Shoreland limited residential, Hulls Cove residential corridor, Hulls Cove rural, resource protection and Ireson Hill residential districts. The 18 Hamor Lane property itself is 58.7 acres.
Dority and the applicant’s representative, Greg Johnston, work together on projects a lot, but not on this one, Dority disclosed before the discussion began. There was no conflict of interest vote after Dority mentioned that the men often work together. There is no pecuniary interest in this project, Dority said. The relationship has been disclosed and discussed at the board previously.
Planning Board Joe Cough worried about the fire department requirement to have sprinkler systems in each home despite the area being served by town water.
According to the applicant, in this particular area unless the seasonal mains are activated above Pirate’s Cove, the lines might not have peak adequate pressure. That’s why the fire chief is requesting that the homes to have sprinkler systems. If that condition no longer exists when the homes are built, then that wouldn’t be required.
Dority said that another subdivision had been approved on the same property in the past.
The application was unanimously moved to be incomplete because of capacity letters and a public hearing was scheduled for July 25.
PROJECTS APPLICATIONS MATERIALS
Application Materials for KOA:
SP-2023-03 Bar Harbor Oceanside Campground Site Plan Application (submitted 4/12/2023)
SP-2023-03 Site Plan Set (submitted 4/12/2023)
Revised Site Plan Application (submitted 4/25/23)
Revised Site Plan Set (submitted 4/25/23)
Revised Application Materials for the June Meeting (submitted 5/18/23)
Revised Site Plan for the June Meeting (submitted 5/18/23)
Application Materials for Explore Acadia Cottages
Applicant/Owner: Explore Acadia LLC/Sarah and David O’Connell, 300 Bay View Drive, Bar Harbor, ME 04609
Application: Build 9 rental cabins, 1 RV site and a small office building on the applicants’ property.
Project Location: 937 Route 3 (Tax Map and Lot number: 206-044-000) encompassing a total of ±4.18 acres, according to town tax records
Districts: Salisbury Cove Corridor and Salisbury Cove Residential
Application Materials: SP-2023-04 Explore Acadia Cottages Site Plan Application (submitted 5/18/23)
SP-2023-04 Site Plan (submitted 5/18/23)
Application Revisions and Submission Supplement Materials (received 5/30/23)
ITEM 3. Site Plan Review for Completeness of SD-2023-01 Harbor Lights Subdivision
Applicant/Owner: Christopher Maller Trustee, 18 Hamor Lane, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
Application: Create 10 single-family lots on 19 acres of land located in the Hulls Cove Residential and Hulls Cove Rural districts.
Project Location: 18 Hamor Lane (Tax Map and Lot number: 216-050-000), encompassing a total of 58.7 acres
Districts: Shoreland Limited Residential, Hulls Cove Residential Corridor, Hulls Cove Rural, Resource Protection and Ireson Hill Residential
Application Materials:
SD-2023-01 Harbor Lights Subdivision Sketch Plan (submitted 2/13/23)
SD-2023-01 Harbor Lights Site Plan Application (submitted 5/18/23)
SD-2023-01 Harbor Lights Plan Set (submitted 5/18/23)
Other Projects Under Review:
Minor Site Plan Review for MSP-2023-01 – Babcock Bakery Home Occupation
Applicant & Owners: Hannah & Brit Babcock, 2 Lookout Point Road, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609
Application: Convert the first floor of the barn into a take-out bakery.
Project Location: 2 Lookout Point Road, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609, respectively Tax Map 216, Lot 97 encompassing ±3.29 acres of land
District: Village Historic
Link to Application: MSP-2023-01 Babcock Bakery Home Occupation (submitted 4/12/2023)
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/282/Planning-Board
https://www.townhallstreams.com/stream.php?location_id=37&id=49571
Updated Draft Table of Lodging Uses
All images not labeled come from the proposal packets
"Plans call for three-stories and 45 rooms, with a first-floor footprint of approximately 9,400 square feet. For comparison, the average B&B in America is six rooms and totals 5,700 square feet, according to the Association of Lodging Professionals."
https://www.mdislander.com/news/residents-question-b-b-regulations/article_01675190-a198-11ed-9bce-f32216925ba3.html
"Once you are set up to rent more than 8 beds, (16 people), then the occupancy changes from the B&B classification of Rooming & Lodging to Hotel. Hotel use has more stringent requirements than does Rooming & Lodging."
http://www.maine.gov/dps/fmo/plans-review/bbrequirements
Often savvy, if unscrupulous, developers push the limits of the law. Bad projects spotlight the flaws and unintended consequences of bad regulations. As has happened here. The latest addition to Coston's - "local boy makes a few dollars" hardy har har - real estate holdings may result in a rewrite of Bar Harbor's regulations (which may not comply with state law, do not comply with B&B precedence, and which defy common sense and civic mindedness.)
The Cottage Street site could have been better used for an affordable multifamily dwelling.
My apologies to Mr. Paradis for associating him with the Cottage Street 45 room B&B boondoggle. Of course it should have been Stephen Coston, along with Brian Shaw and Tom St. Germain.