Sep 20, 2025
MOUNT DESERT—New Mount Desert Town Manager Alex Kimball’s first selectboard meeting on Monday focused on the future.
The Musson Group spoke to three different projects that all have to do with the future of both the town and the island.
The group has been facilitating a strategic planning process with the League of Towns (LOT), which includes communities on Mount Desert Island, Lamoine, Trenton, Ellsworth, and Cranberry Island.
“Thanks to some grant funding through the state, as part of our larger housing work, we were able to work with the League of Towns to get the opportunity to try to do a regional strategic plan,” the group’s principal planner and owner Noel Musson told the selectboard. “And the goal of that plan is really to try to identify shared challenges and collective opportunities that we have together as communities around our—what we’re calling—our micro region, thinking about transportation issues and housing issues and economic development issues and all the things that we all share as part of our small, little area here.”
The goal is to identify shared challenges and collective opportunities around issues like transportation, housing, and economic development.
Key themes that have emerged so far include a commitment to building sustainable year-round communities, improving regional collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and enhancing transportation connectivity. The next elected leaders meeting on October 30th will focus on developing specific goals and action plans.
There have been two elected officials meetings so far. The next meeting will be October 30 and it will focus on actions toward shared goals.
“Sounds good,” said Selectboard Chair John Macauley.
HOUSING SOLUTIONS INITIATIVE
The Musson Group has been leading a Housing Solutions Initiative for the MDI region.
That work has included housing summits in 2023 and 2024 as those invited to the summits defined the key challenges and barriers.
They have found three main focus areas: identifying funding sources and mechanisms, increasing communication between towns, and creating a common understanding of housing needs and market dynamics.
As part of this work, they have developed a GIS-based analysis tool that combines data on infrastructure, zoning, and development patterns to help identify potential housing opportunity areas.
“(This was) a sort of micro-regional housing needs assessment where we were able to look at how many units does the region, the micro-region need, and then sort of a range for each town,” Susanne Paul, Musson Group senior planner and GIS analyst said. “We used different data sets. So, one is a proximity to water infrastructure. One is a proximity to sewer infrastructure. One looks at medium and higher density residential zoning. Another looks at growth areas that were identified in the comprehensive planning process. And then the last one was we mapped clusters of 20,000-square-foot lot sizes.”
“In the last 10 or 20 years, we’ve lost a lot of our existing houses to short-term rentals and to summer residents,” said selectboard member Martha Dudman. “Is part of your conversation conversation addressing that? So that increased housing doesn’t just mean more short-term rentals, more summer residents, because what we need, I think we all agree, is more year-round housing for people who live here.”
“I think we like to talk about it as . . . When we say that there is a need for more year-round housing it doesn’t necessarily mean new construction. It doesn’t have to do that,” Paul said.
“I would also add that as part of the conversations that we’re having, as part of the comprehensive plan update, sort of like a foundational discussions. . . . This is where you start to formulate some of your longer-term, bigger policy objectives,” Musson said. “So that could be, that will likely be, part of the conversation, and I don’t know what direction it’s going to head, but you know, if you’re going to allow more density in certain areas, then there’s the policy objective to help achieve that. It would definitely be part of the conversations that we’re having.”
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE
The Musson Group is also currently leading the process to update the Town of Mount Desert’s comprehensive plan, which was last updated in 2009. The plan is meant to be a vision for the town’s future and help guide the choices that the town makes.
The group has been working with the comprehensive planning committee to update the data inventory and are preparing to hold a large community meeting on November 12 to gather input on the town’s vision and values.
“The purpose of that meeting is really to talk about vision values with participants and it’s also to start to engage with future land use and some of those bigger topics,” Musson said.
Future steps will involve deep-diving into goals and policy objectives, with a focus on engaging with summer residents as well.
The committee has been working on an updated data section for the town’s comprehensive plan website.
APPROVAL TO USE TEMP AGENCY TO HIRE SEASONAL REFUSE WORKER
The selectboard accepted James Blaine’s resignation from Warrant Committee and approved the dismissal of Donald Sullivan as a buildings and grounds custodian. That dismissal was effective September 11. Later in the meeting, it approved using the Maine Staffing Group to provide a temp-to- hire employee for the open buildings and grounds custodian position effective September 22, 2025.
In a September 11 letter, Public Works Director Brian Henkel wrote, “The Town of Mount Desert currently has an open, full-time buildings and grounds custodian position. The town also has a contract for temporary staffing through Maine Staffing Group.”
He continued, “That contract is for a seasonal refuse worker position to cover the summer schedule of twice per week refuse collection. The summer schedule ends on September 20, 2025. Public works is proposing to convert the current, temporary seasonal Refuse Worker contract employee to a temp-to-hire in the buildings and grounds custodian position. The buildings and grounds position is part of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Teamsters Local 340. The Town would not be able to hire a temporary employee for that position without violating the terms of the CBA.”
OTHER BUSINESS
The board renewed the liquor license of Eliza Bishop, who is doing business as Milk and Honey at 3 Old Firehouse Lane.
It also approved a contract with Coastal Energy for #2 heating oil for Fiscal Year 2026 at a price of $2.47 per gallon.
The board approved the granting of a revocable license agreement with Island Housing Trust to authorize work on town land for the Ripples Hill Development project.
The board approved contract with Cintas Corporation to provide uniforms and janitorial supply services for the Public Works Department.
It reviewed and approved a change order to the Somesville Sidewalk Project with Gardner Concrete in the amount of $12,000. The change is due to a wooden fence that had been removed and turned out to be in poor position and had to be replaced.
It also accepted a conditional gift from Katherine Conley to the Mount Desert Fire Department in the amount of $500.00 in support of EMS operations.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Rick Osann Art.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To visit the Comprehensive Plan Committee
To visit the MDI Housing Solutions Initiative
To watch the meeting:
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