Breaking Down Bar Harbor’s Lodging Moratorium’s Whereas Clauses
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.
BAR HARBOR—Bar Harbor’s new moratorium on certain transient accommodations (lodgings) was built on a series of “whereas” clauses meant to explain and justify the moratorium and to give the planning department guidance on information gathering.
Over the next couple of weeks, The Bar Harbor Story will unpack those clauses one by one, exploring the information the town’s planning department has gathered and shared with the public. In some cases, we’ll also draw on historical context to help fill in the picture where official presentations aren’t yet available.
“WHEREAS, residents of the Town of Bar Harbor have expressed concerns that an increase in Certain Transient Accommodations will further exacerbate traffic congestion, degrading the ability of fire, health, and other emergency services to protect people within the Town.”
On April 24, 2025 the planning board held a workshop to discuss the moratorium ordinance on certain transient accommodations. Present at this workshop were Fire Chief Matt Bartlett and Police Chief David Kerns, both of whom gave presentations on fire and emergency services and how lodging expansions may impact them. At the conclusion of this presentation, there were some technical issues and the recording of the meeting was lost.
On May 21, Housing and Community Planner Cali Martinez and Staff Planner Hailey Bondy sat down with the public safety chiefs and recreated the presentation so that it was publicly available for viewing.
During that presentation, Martinez went into call levels for both departments with Chief Kerns providing a graph that shows the call levels from 2018 through 2024.
Martinez also had both chiefs explain how both departments have shifted from depending on part-time or volunteer personnel to having larger staffs of full-time, potentially better qualified, employees over the last couple of decades.
Additionally, both chiefs spoke about mutual aid agreements and other understandings that allow small-town emergency service departments to depend on each other during events that are too large for just a single community response.
According to the call for service numbers shown on Chief Kerns’ graph, calls for service increase from April through July or August of every year and start to return to an offseason plateau between July and September: a pattern to be expected in Bar Harbor, which has a seasonal influx of tourists due to its beauty and proximity to Acadia National Park.
Both chiefs stated that they have not reached pre-COVID numbers for calls for service after the COVID-19 pandemic and that the call for service numbers do not reflect the increased number of visitors to the area post COVID.
Chief Kerns said, “I don’t think I can put a pin on something and say that this is what makes our calls go up in the summertime.”
Martinez asked, “Are we, as a community, moving towards a scale of crowd or traffic congestion that you would say severely limits either of your departments’ (police or fire/ambulance) ability to protect the public’s health and safety?”
The town will always have land-based travel and the crowds are not necessarily based on lodging, Kerns said, adding that he didn’t think he could pick any one aspect of tourism and say that it drives an increase in the departments’ calls for service.
Chief Kerns said that the police department is just as likely to find itself overwhelmed by a single incident in February as in the height of the summer.
Chief Bartlett agreed and said that the majority of the recent large-scale incidents and major fires in Bar Harbor have occurred in the shoulder seasons.
Martinez asked if the call for service numbers can specifically be tied back to people staying on the island or in Bar Harbor.
Chief Kerns said that in most cases, those data points are not collected to allow the departments to know if incidents involve a local lodger or a day tripper, or even a visitor at all.
Martinez also spoke with both chiefs about their roles in the local building project planning process as part of the technical review team (TRT) which meets, usually with applicants or their representatives, to ensure that projects are meeting the needs of different town departments.
The TRT has a huge value in that it brings all of the parties together to work on any potential issues and try to solve the issue for all departments at one time, according to Chief Kerns.
Chief Bartlett concurred, saying that it allows a sharing of needs and individual department needs to be addressed together rather than attempt to do it individually by department.
“Last thing we want to do is, even though it may meet the land use ordinance, is to approve something that is gonna cause additional calls for service for us,” Chief Kerns said.
Neither chief could think of an instance where a project had not been approved and said that applicants always try to meet the needs and requests of the TRT.
At the end of the meeting, Martinez made a series of concluding statements capturing some of the overarching takeaways.
“It seems both of your departments have adequate capacity currently, but in the future as well, because of your experience throughout time, being able to adapt management strategies, but also protocols, to better meet, as needs change. Whether that be local changes or nationwide or statewide changes that you have to adapt to, it seems that you have the ability to do that, to meet the level of expectation,” Martinez said.
Next, Martinez said, “Another takeaway would be that there is no clear use, being a land use or building, that is necessarily causing undue burden compared to other uses. Or, at least it is not identified through data and that it seems there has been a consistent challenge that both of your departments are used to which is the influx during the season. But, it seems like you have protocols in place to deal with that constant challenge.”
“Visitors come from all over the island and off island even. They are not just coming from maybe hotels or uses in the Town of Bar Harbor, they are coming from everywhere and you even go into the Park to help out as well. Even if that is not in the Bar Harbor town line,” Martinez continued.
“Another overarching theme that I see is the importance of regional collaboration and these mutual aid agreements to not only, maybe, help with smaller scale incidences, but also what’s going to happen during bigger levels of incidences when that kind of plays into the level of uncertainty that is a natural part of the job and that could happen anywhere and it seems that will kind of help whether there are incidents in the off season or even during the season and how kind of key it is to be able provide that level of service that everyone expects,” Martinez said.
Lastly, Martinez said, “I see that there is adequate regulations, at least with the land use ordinance side, it seems there is adequate process, there is adequate time to discuss with applicants, to readjust to meet both of your needs to be able to do both of your jobs pretty well.”
Martinez then asked both chiefs if her takeaways seemed accurate and they both responded that they did.
NOISE COMPLAINTS IN THE DOWNTOWN AREA
This slide was presented to the planning board at a September 8 workshop during which data presented by the planning department was discussed.
The calls for service represented in this slide have no direct relevance to lodgings due to the initiating reason or location for the call not be presented. These complaints could represent loud music, construction starting to early in the morning, loud vehicles, loud people, or any number of disturbing noises that are not taking place at or otherwise tied to a lodging.
Additionally, the Ireson Hill Corridor/Route 3 breakout carries no direct relevance to lodgings. The asterisk that reads “most of the calls on Route 3 were near a campground” could be considered misleading for two reasons in that campgrounds do not currently fall under any lodging category and are by definition, not lodgings, and campgrounds typically do not have overnight staffing so most campground complaints at night are referred to the police department.
A LOOK AT ANOTHER WHEREAS CLAUSE
“WHEREAS, residents of the Town of Bar Harbor have expressed concerns that an increase in Certain Transient Accommodations will put undue strain on the water, sewer, and stormwater systems”
The water, sewer, and stormwater systems presentation by Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt has not yet occurred and is scheduled to occur on October 8 with the town’s planning board and planning department.
The information presented below is from a July 23, 2023, Bar Harbor Story article. The information in that article was gathered from town resources including Leavitt and water and sewer staff. The information presented below is subject to differing from the updated information that will be presented on October 8 due to changes in user numbers, infrastructure improvements, aging equipment, etc.
WASTEWATER (SEWER) PLANTS
Bar Harbor has three wastewater treatment plants. The main plant is at the corner of Ledgelawn Avenue and Cromwell Harbor Road, a secondary plant at the Hulls Cove Highway Department headquarters property off the Crooked Road, and a tertiary and small capacity plant at the bottom of DeGregoire Park Road.
The DeGregoire Park system is the smallest system and has a capacity of .015 million gallons per day (MGD). It serves a very limited amount of residences and is the only system that does not have a combined sewer overflows (CSO) outlet. It is serviced by one pump station and has a 600 linear foot (LF) 8” outfall pipe.
The Hulls Cove treatment plant has a slightly higher capacity than the DeGregoire Park plant at .25 MGD. Its annual average daily use is approximately .05 MGD or one fifth of its capacity. Hulls Cove is serviced by four pump stations and has a 3,300 LF 8” outfall pipe. It also has a 420 LF 8” CSO pipe.
Bar Harbor’s main treatment plant has a capacity of 5.2 MGD and a much more robust system of pumps and outlets. The main treatment plant’s annual average daily use is approximately 1.0 MGD or roughly one fifth of its capacity. It is serviced by six pump stations and has a 4,800 LF 24” outfall pipe. It also has three CSO outlets ranging in size from 12” to 24”. The three CSO pipes total 1,520 LF.
Looking at the capacities of the sewer plants, the town’s average usage indicates that it is well below system capacities. Were these systems new and the town’s stormwater collection systems likewise new, the town would be in good shape for the use expansion created by new customers. Little of the town’s system can be considered new or updated right now.
During heavy rain events, the town’s wastewater collection pipes can be overwhelmed with intruding stormwater. Normally, all of the wastewater that is released into the ocean from the town has been treated. This release of treated water occurs via the outfall pipes from both the main treatment plant and the Hulls Cove treatment plant. This normal operation, based upon the number of current users, keeps the amount of wastewater being processed well below the capacity of both plants, at approximately one fifth of their maximum capacities.
However, the introduction of great amounts of stormwater into the wastewater system can cause both plants to reach and exceed their operational capacities. The pump stations that pump wastewater to the plants will not pump more wastewater to the plant than the plant can successfully treat. When the amount of water, a combination of wastewater and stormwater, exceeds these maximum capacities the excess water flows untreated into the bay via the CSO pipes.
However, ongoing infrastructure projects like the recently completed Lower Main Street project should be improving the systems and reducing the amount of CSOs that bypass the main treatment plant.
TOWN WATER
The Town of Bar Harbor has one public water supply, one water treatment plant for that supply, and the entire operation is 100% gravity fed. The system also includes two 500,000 gallon water tanks, one at the Duck Brook treatment plant and one near the Jackson Lab.
The output capacity is based upon the treatment capacity of the Duck Brook water treatment plant. The maximum output of the plant is 3.6 million gallons per day (MGD), but that is a scenario where the plant is running at full capacity for 24 hours a day. This is not a viable expectation and the realistic maximum output is 2.8 MGD.
The average daily water demand is approximately 1.0 MGD with a maximum daily demand (based upon the summer of 2022) of 2.6 MGD. According to the town, the average daily summer demand is below the maximum capacity and the water system can support an additional 500 gallons per minute or 560,000 gallons per day based on the realistic maximum output.
For reference, in 2023, the Jackson Lab used approximately 68,288,000 gallons of water for the year or approximately 187,100 gallons per day. This equates to almost 26% of the total water usage for 2023. All other commercial uses combined used 45% of the water in 2023.
Notwithstanding development of properties of any category (or other water use increases) utilizing town water that has occurred since the summer of 2022, there was enough excess daily water supply to support almost three complete Jackson Labs in 2023.
Again for reference, in 2023, Jackson Lab accounted for 9.5% of the town’s total water revenue. The top five lodging users of town water combined accounted for 7.4%.
The town’s year-round water supply system runs from just south of the Jackson Lab through downtown and Hulls Cove and terminates just north of Pirates Cove Adventure Golf. There is a short section of seasonal supply system that starts at the DeGregoire Park Road and Route 3 intersection and terminates just north of Hadley Point Road.
Because the system is currently 100% gravity fed, expansion of the year-round system beyond its current boundaries would be quite costly and would require the installation of pumps to move the water to elevations greater than 235’ and maintain water pressure. Beyond that, once the daily output capacity of the Duck Brook treatment plant is exceeded, a new or additional water treatment plant would need to be constructed.
In addition, much of the existing water main system is aged and undersized. Expansion would require replacement of much of that system (as is being done for the lower Main Street project) to provide capacity and pressure for a larger system. Replacement of parts of the system are underway as they often get replaced simultaneously with wastewater and stormwater pipe replacement.
According to a comprehensive master plan update summary completed by Oliver Associates Inc. and presented to the town council on September 15, 2020, residential properties, both year round and seasonally supplied, make up approximately 23.6% of the town supplied water usage. Commercial properties, both year-round and seasonally supplied, make up approximately 48.5% of the town supplied water usage.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Watch the Police and Fire Chiefs’ Interview
Where Will All The Houses Go?
Top Ten Property Taxpayers in Bar Harbor Are Mostly Hotels
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