Bar Harbor Looks to Decrease Litigation and Find a Way Forward With Cruise Ship Changes As Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cancel Visits This Season
MAY 22, 2024
BAR HARBOR—Two parallel paths.
That’s how the Bar Harbor Town Council and Town Manager James Smith defined recent choices in the town’s cruise ship saga as the Council deals with lawsuits from both businesses and pilots impacted by daily cruise ship disembarkation limits and Charles Sidman, the main petitioner for the citizens’ initiative for those changes, which were approved by voters in November 2022.
But even as the Council moves forward, some vessels are cancelling their Bar Harbor stops. For example, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have removed all of their calls from the schedule. The PortCall schedule, however, is a living document, and a complicated one.
On the schedule, vessels can indicate that they want to visit, but not actually arrive. The harbormaster must confirm all bookings. Each cruise line also has its own internal system for where its vessels will stop and visit.
On Wednesday, Town Manager James Smith confirmed, saying, “It appears that Royal Caribbean had booked 15 port call visits, and their smaller line, Celebrity, had booked three port call visits for approximately 56,000 passengers.”
Compared to the schedule as it was confirmed at the beginning of the season, those current numbers are slightly different and total 16 and just under 50,000 passengers.
Royal Caribbean told town officials, “Our current itineraries for 2024 were put on sale to the public in late 2022 and did not feature Bar Harbor given the uncertainty of our ability to visit the port. We had a few calls that were previously reserved, and we remained hopeful that the situation would be clarified in enough time for us to add Bar Harbor back into our itineraries. Unfortunately, these changes came many months too late and we will be continuing with our published itineraries that do not include the destination.”
Town Council Chair Valerie Peacock said Wednesday, “This shows the importance of having a clear and consistent policy framework for managing cruise ships. The Town Council remains committed to enforcing the will of the people, while working to bring forward the necessary policy tools for implementation. This work will eventually provide the necessary stability and predictability for managing cruise ships in the Town of Bar Harbor.”
“It’s unfortunate to lose these reservations this summer,” Peacock continued, “as we know the business community was relying on them and the town had included them in our budget projections.”
Sarah Flink, executive director of Cruise Maine, told the Bar Harbor Story that in the beginning of Bar Harbor’s season there were 100 ships scheduled with 181,926 passengers.
Captain David Gelinas, president of the Penobscot Bay and River Pilots Association, and 30-year ship pilot, told the Bar Harbor Story this weekend that he believes was worried about the cancellations.
“As concerning as that is, the forecast for 2025 is even more troubling,” he said.
Currently, there are 18 ship visits listed on PortCall (the official reservation site for Maine cruise ports); they are all ships of over 1,000 passengers which were booked before the new ordinance was adopted, Gelinas said.
Gelinas said currently there are no reservations for ships of under 1,000 passengers.
“Proponents of the new land use ordinance had forecast that the ‘higher-class’ small ships would increase in numbers after passage of the ordinance,” Gelinas said. “The record is indicating otherwise. I had dinner last week with a cruise-ship agent who represents a very high-end small ship cruise line (ships of under 500 passengers); this line was originally planning on calling in Bar Harbor four times for 2025. Instead, they are avoiding Bar Harbor altogether and going to Canada; the rationale being that the business climate in Bar Harbor is just too uncertain to plan a voyage there, despite the fact that their passenger count is under the limit set by the LUO.”
TOWN COUNCIL ACTIONS ON TUESDAY
At its Tuesday night meeting, the Town Council unanimously amended one ordinance, and moved the Cruise Ship Disembarkation Ordinance to a June 18 public hearing, and it directed Smith to look for ways to begin to gather public input and feedback in order to put in place better regulatory tools to manage cruise ship visitation.
“This resolution has grown out of the frustration we’ve felt as a council, in that we’re being buffeted on two different sides,” Councilor Earl Brechlin said. “One, which is a web of LLCs and seemingly unlimited funds and another, which is basically a political group, masquerading as a legal fund that’s had anonymous donations of upwards of $100,000 and we don’t get to see who that is. But we know who is paying the check for all of the legal bills Bar Harbor has.”
Brechlin is referring to the Association to Protect Public Local Livelihoods, (APPLL) which is an LLC of some Bar Harbor business owners and supporters and which was part of the federal suit against the town. That suit is in appeal. The legal fund, he is referring to is Sidman’s GoFundMe, which has raised almost $300,000, including one $100,000 donation and another $50,000 donation. Both those donations are anonymous. There is no outfacing donation totals for APPLL, but it also has a donation form on its website.
“You can see that effect on our budget. You can see that effect at town meeting,” Brechlin said. “I think when people voted originally there was frustration with the Council for inaction on the cruise ships. I think that people wanted something to be done.”
“I don’t think people fully understood, I know that I did not, that 1,000 passengers meant zero because there aren’t any ships that bring that many people. I don’t think the answer is zero, and I don’t think it’s 330 ships,” Brechlin said.
The new rules in the town’s ordinances and operating procedures cut cruise ship visitations to 1,000 disembarkations a day. If there are more than 1,000 disembarkations, fines occur.
THE POTENTIAL PATH FORWARD
At Tuesday’s meeting, Brechlin said that if Smith and the Council work quickly enough, they could have better regulatory tools on the ballot in November and get a definitive statement on what the community wants to do.
Council Chair Valerie Peacock said that the Council has always thought there needed to be a reduction in visitation. She said that the problem is how to “actually implement this ordinance” because of how it is written and “there’s some challenges with that.”
The changes’ implementation is managed through the land use ordinance.
The resolution, she said, is a different way to think about how to get to the voters’ goals.
“I think we we are right now is figuring out how to actually implement this ordinance,” she said, and there’s challenges in that, she said. “Let’s start talking about a better way to do this that’s going to clear this path of craziness we have in front of us around litigation.”
She added, “We’ve learned a lot about this in the past two years and there might be a better way through.”
In 2021, a town survey that elicited almost 1,400 respondents, found that of those respondents, 55 percent thought the overall impact of cruise ships was negative. The same percentage found that the ships detract from Bar Harbor’s image as a tourism destination connected with Acadia National Park.
The town’s new plan was managing cruise ship arrivals through memorandums of agreement between the town and the cruise lines. The most recent agreements set daily limits of 3,500 to 3,800 passengers and also monthly limits, which town officials believed would make cruise-free days each month. The limits changed depending on the season.
Councilor Matthew Hochman referenced this plan during the discussion.
“We had a plan in place that had real reductions and unfortunately we never got to see how it worked,” he said, “because what is essentially a poorly written ordinance was put before the voters, and a lot of people didn’t understand it, and it passed.”
He said that if it had been a collaborative effort from the beginning, the town wouldn’t be in its current position.
“Instead, we had a my-way-or-the-highway route to go,” he said and an ordinance that is unworkable. He advocated for a collaborative effort. “If we continue with the ordinance as it is, we’re going to be in litigation for years and years and years.”
“There are plenty of people who knew exactly what they were working for,” Councilor Maya Caines said. “I think the rhetoric that people didn’t know what they were voting for is . . . I don’t know if that’s fully true. I think a lot of people did know what they were voting for.”
Peacock agreed, saying that some people did vote for that decrease, but how the rules were to be implemented weren’t necessarily understood.
“The town is committed to promulgating regulations to implement the cruise ship ordinance. We’re going to enforce it. That’s the law of the land right now. We’re not backing down from that,” Council Vice Chair Gary Friedmann said.
Resident Diane Vreeland said, “I did not take that a 1,000 passengers meant zero. I didn’t read it that way.” She added that she was shocked that the Council was taking its position. “That just blows my mind.”
Both Smith and Town Attorney Stephen Wagner emphasized that the disembarkation rules are moving forward.
“What you’re witnessing is a dual track remedy,” Smith said, adding that parts of the LUO need to be tweaked to make the regulations work and that those parts will go back to the voters and the hopes are that those remedies will reduce the litigation.
Wagner also said the resolution is not stopping the enforcement action.
APPLL Board President and local restaurant owner, Kristi Bond read the ballot’s simple language and said, “Nowhere is there a 1,000 number. Nowhere is there people/passengers.” She suggested the town being more clear about what the ordinance would say. Later, Wagner said that the full language was available to voters and it is common practice to condense language on ballots.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE RESOLVE
CRUISE SHIP DISEMBARKATION ORDINANCE
This new ordinance was discussed at the end of the last Town Council meeting. It is meant to enact the cruise ship disembarkation changes.
At its last meeting, the Council took no action on the ordinance after hearing multiple legal questions during public comment, much of which came from two attorneys who are representing the Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods (APPLL), which is appealing the federal decision upholding the ordinance. The Penobscot Bay Pilot’s Association is part of that appeal .
The newest changes are explained in the language of the ordinance in a “whereas” clause, stating,
“WHEREAS, an earlier draft of this ordinance amendment was presented to the Town Council May 7, 2024 and the Council took no action on the item at that meeting pending possible changes.
“The below draft includes the following edits:
- “Disembarkation Ordinance 8(B) refers to enforcement by the CEO pursuant to LUO 125-11. This was changed to refer to both 125-100 and 101.
- “Disembarkation Ordinance 6(C)(3) cross reference to ‘5(C)(4),’ changed to 6(C)(4).
- “Disembarkation Ordinance 7(C) revised to clarify that access is consistent with 30-A MRS 4452 and authorized CEO to obtain administrative search warrant if access is refused.
- “Disembarkation Ordinance 6(C)(1) and (2), and (4) revised slightly for clarity.”
LANGUAGE TWEAK APPROVED
The Council unanimously approved a tweak to include the word “chapter” in the Port and Harbor Ordinance.” This ordinance clarifies the town’s harbor master’s authority for the new cruise ship rules. It’s just one piece of many to get those rules to a place they can be enforced.
UPDATE:
At 5:27 p.m., this article has been updated to include a letter to the Town Council that Charles Sidman’s attorney sent. It is in pdf form below.
SECOND UPDATE:
On Thursday, May 23, we received multiple PDFs from Charles Sidman. We’ve included them below and will also include them in our next story to make sure that everyone can see them. As always, we don’t want to make up other people’s minds about things, but would prefer to give you information so that you can do that for yourselves. However, we have not included an advertisement that he has paid for in the Islander. We encourage you to buy the latest episode of the Islander so that you can read it.
2024 05 21 Sidman Town Council Public Comment
147KB ∙ PDF file
Tab A May 21 Council Agenda Packet (excerpts)
309KB ∙ PDF file
Sidman Request For Reconsideration
323KB ∙ PDF file
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Council Packet, which includes ordinance language and potential resolves
To watch the meeting on Town Hall Streams
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