What Will the Next Lodging Moratorium Potentially Cover?
Bar Harbor's Sustainability Tourism Task Force a Go; Work Plan That Impacts Bar Harbor's Future Approved
BAR HARBOR—In a broad-ranging meeting, January 21, the Bar Harbor Town Council made moves that could impact the town’s future in the realms of lodging, short-term rentals, tourism, parking, and protecting water resources.
Bar Harbor’s moratorium on lodgings was potentially tweaked for any future incarnations, Tuesday night, when councilors added language to the draft order that schedules a public hearing for February 4.
There is already an emergency moratorium in place that has paused development on multiple lodging types.
The changes to the potential new moratorium—which to be enacted would have to be voted in by councilors after a public hearing—enlarge the types of transient accommodations (lodgings) covered.
“I think the focus also needs to be on the effect all of this has on affordable housing or housing in general,” Councilor Earl Brechlin said. He said the town needs to preserve what housing it currently has.
Brechlin recommended inserting a whereas clause into the language.
“Whereas, the loss and conversion of year-round housing to seasonal businesses and seasonal worker housing, along with the encroachment of commercial operations into residential areas, pose significant challenges to the stability and character of our community,” Brechlin proposed.
It was unanimously approved.
Then, outgoing Councilor Kyle Shank, who has resigned and is moving out of state, suggested adding the lodging one and two uses to the list of lodgings impacted by the next potential moratorium. All other lodging is covered in the current emergency moratorium.
“If we’re going to vote on this, there’s no reason to not make it all lodging uses,” Shank said.
Lodging I is a single-family dwelling where at least one resident of the dwelling provides short-term overnight lodging in up to 3 guest rooms within the dwelling . Meals may be served only to overnight guests.
Lodging II is a single-family dwelling where at least one resident of the dwelling provides short-term overnight lodging in up to 12 guest rooms within the dwelling. Meals may be served only to overnight guests.
Brechlin’s new whereas clause, he said, singled out single-family dwelling units. Either way, Planning Director Michele Gagnon said those uses would be looked at, as is written in the town’s 2025 work plan, which was also approved that night.
Shank’s change was also unanimously approved.
If approved, the regular moratorium would begin March 6, 2025. This is before the re-enacted emergency moratorium expires. The regular moratorium would continue for 180 days.
There is more background information in the proposed moratorium now because it’s not an emergency moratorium, but it allows for remodels, revisions, and renovations of current structures, but no enlargements.
Peter Hastings, who owns lodgings, said, “It is very obvious that the council right now is treading on very dangerous ground about cherry picking what development is okay and what development is not okay.”
Similarly, he said that the emergency is not clearly defined and it seems like the emergency is likely about an overcrowding issue. He said it hasn’t been pinpointed as a resources or traffic emergency, but that there are too many tourists here.
“I think it needs to be much more pinpointed to what the question we’re asking is,” he said.
Outgoing Council Vice Chair Gary Friedmann said that the work plan, which was also discussed during the meeting, makes it clear what the moratorium is focused on. He doesn’t think it’s diffuse or unclear in any way.
Councilor Maya Caines said she’s more worried about housing that is existing becoming something else rather than hotels being built.
“To me it’s the flaws in our zoning that are compromising the ability to live in this town,” Councilor Joe Minutolo said. “We’ve watched our community shrink. We’ve watched our school system shrink.”
He said there is a never-ending funnel of people coming into the town to take transient accommodations.
The U.S. census currently estimates the Bar Harbor population as 5,276. The current enrollment at Conners Emerson Elementary is 342. According to the Conners Emerson website, “Enrollment has been holding steady around 330+/- students for the last seven years.”
2025 WORKPLAN
For the two resigning town councilors and the rest of the seven-seat Bar Harbor Town Council, Tuesday’s meeting was filled with multiple tasks that look toward the town’s future, so much so that it included a draft proposed work plan for the town, which currently also has its comprehensive plan almost finished and an emergency moratorium on lodgings in play.
“We’re trying to eat the whale one bite at a time,” Gagnon said.
Gagnon and her staff found five major points to focus on in the potential work plan.
Those included addressing the “immediate needs of the moratorium: manage lodging uses, developing a sustainable tourism management strategy, reduc(ing) the impacts of short-term rentals on residential neighborhoods; allowing rural development while (also) protecting water and sensitive resources, and access(ing) the adequacy of parking requirements for all uses.”
“This is really comprehensive,” Caines said, adding that she appreciated how the work plan had been connected to the comprehensive plan, as well as the whys of each section. “I really like this.”
Friedmann agreed that it was an excellent approach. His only concern was the timeframe for the task force. Gagnon said that the town will be asking for money in the budget to hire someone to work on the sustainable tourism strategy, which is why the timeframe ends by the third quarter of 2026.
“We don’t want the work rushed,” Councilor Matthew Hochman said. He said he understood not wanting to rush the committee and do things right.
Council Chair Valerie Peacock said it was helpful to see the details laid out. She added that it’s really important to be clear about the work that needs to be done for the moratorium.
The first item of that work plan focuses on the moratorium and managing lodging uses. The why stressing that the goal is “to preserve existing year-round housing, protect residential neighborhoods, and maintain residents’ quality of life (such as but not limited to housing affordability and safe streets).”
Actions listed in the proposed work plan include data collection, inventorying uses by district, developing goals and policies to meet those goals, and creating performance metrics.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM TASK FORCE
The Council approved a sustainable tourism task force.
The staff changed the number of members to 13, a purposefully uneven number. The Planning Director will serve as the primary contact and coordinator between the consultant(s), Task Force, community, and manager.
“The Task Force shall consist of no more than 13 Bar Harbor year-round residents appointed by the Town Council. The membership should include a broad representation of the diverse interests that make up Bar Harbor. For example, it could include residents and workers in the following categories: retirees, hoteliers, restaurateurs, retailers, attraction and tour operators, Chamber of Commerce, bankers, realtors, professional and research sector, construction, farmers, fishers, Island Explorer, Climate Emergency Task Force, Comprehensive Planning Committee, Planning Board, as well as other boards and committees. An inclusive and balanced representation of diverse interests will ensure that a wide range of viewpoints, perspectives and background are considered and included in the decision-making process and that all voices are heard,” it reads.
A handful of members of the public spoke of their worries about the task force’s potential composition. Another member of the public said that residents in town aren’t just one-dimension, easily categorized and labelled as business owner or not.
There are more dimensions to people than that, Shank agreed.
“We should be remarkably careful about how we talk about these things and percentages because we are using definitions of people and trying to put labels on folks that they can be only one thing or another. There’s lots of people who are year-round residents who own a business or young people who don’t work in tourism, who work at the lab, but maybe bartend on the side. Are they not allowed to join?” Shank asked. “So, I would be very careful about having kinds of discussions where we set quotas on people based on unidimensional ways of defining who they are. That is a very silly way to try to achieve the goals of a sustainable tourism committee.”
Others hoped that the task force would not include anyone currently involved in suing the town. Hochman said that would exclude a lot of potential people from the task force, including anyone who supported Charles Sidman’s GoFundMe about cruise ship disembarkations.
Sidman said the goal is a sustainable community not sustainable tourism. He also said the make-up should be two-third community members who do not have a short-term economic interest in the tourism community. He said the town risks having the foxes guarding the hen house.
Caines stressed that it is the open-mindedness, desire to collaborate, learn, and other qualities of potential members that are laid out in the document that matter.
Shank also stressed that it was important to remember that the task force is not serving a predetermined outcome. He also stressed that while the council and staff are planning for Bar Harbor’s future, that future may extend beyond them and not involve them, so it is good to be cognizant of that.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
January 21 Bar Harbor Town Council agenda
The proposed moratorium:
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