Planning Board Advances Rules on Housing, Lodging, and Growth
Jan 12, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Edward Jones Financial Advisor: Elise N. Frank
BAR HARBOR—In what was mostly a standard meeting about fine-tuning and moving potential changes in Bar Harbor’s land use rules forward to the town council and voters, the Bar Harbor planning board took two forays during its January 7 meeting.
The first was a quick denial of Eben Salvatore’s request that the board tweak its minutes before approving them.
The second was what Planning Director Michele Gagnon called a “sneak peak” at future planning work in the town that’s recently tackled short-term rentals, infrastructure repairs, cruise ship disembarkations, lodging definitions and is now in the middle of a Safe Streets plan, brownfield remediation at the MDI YMCA, new school construction, library expansion, extensive hospital remodel, and a lodging moratorium. The town’s MDI YMCA is also likely to begin an expansion. Not all of these projects are town projects.
A Northeast Creek water survey and resources in areas outside of those covered by town water and sewer is part of Gagnon’s sneak peak.
“We are doing stewardship of resources,” Gagnon told the board members, saying that they were responding to people’s concerns about the ability of the land in the Northeast Creek area to absorb additional development and any impact of additional wells or septic systems in the Northeast Creek watershed.
Last summer the town monitored the water at eight sites across the Northeast Creek. That data will be presented soon. The DEP gave the town money for a ten-year watershed plan for area. The goal is to understand what is at risk and to allow the town to allow gentle density in the area, which would likely require different regulations.
“We also applied and not yet received . . . a $70k grant for similar work pertaining to septic systems outside the Northeast Creek,” Gagnon said “That would take care of all of the town that is not on water and sewer.”
Most of the town’s water and sewer customers are in downtown Bar Harbor. There’s recently been a proposed 35% increase in those customers’ water rates to help cover a bond approved by all voters of the town to address the aging infrastructure. Those rates have not increased for 10 years.
Gagnon said they want to develop meaningful environmental standards while also working on density.
The department is also going to continue to look at changes for lodging.
“We still got to look at finalizing long-term solutions for lodging and the council has to bless that,” Gagnon said.
“Where do we allow commercial uses?” Gagnon said. “What are the priorities? Where are the issues? Where do we want commercial development and what kind of commercial development do we want.”
Those issues look at downtown. And in Bar Harbor’s downtown, she said, they have to look at how to allow more density.
Gagnon said the department already has ideas that will be coming down the pike in the next 18 months. For housing, they’re looking at cluster developments rather than unplanned and unintentional sprawl. They’re also looking toward fire suppression changes to provide better fire suppression and work on the current residential sprinkler requirement.
They are also looking at other aspects of recent state housing laws such as minimum lot size requirements, Community and Housing Planner Cali Martinez added.
SALVATORE AND MINUTES
In a January 7 email, Eben Salvatore, of Ocean Properties, wrote, “I would like to request that the draft minutes be amended to include my comment that the language under review (during the December 9 workshop) would prevent our plan for the Park Entrance as submitted and force us to apply the non-conforming section for transient accommodations. I am unable to attend the meeting today to request this in person.”
There was no motion to amend the minutes.
Board members quickly reasoned that anyone who wanted to see the full comments for the workshop where those potential changes were discussed could do so via the town’s recording and did not make a motion to amend the minutes.
The minutes approved stated, “Eben Salvatore commented, concerned that this proposal may impact his ability to achieve approval for his project at the Park Entrance Motel.”
The project is to remodel the property. The proposal is to redevelop the Park Entrance Motel site, decreasing the overall size and rebuilding its pier. The plans would make it into a four-story hotel on the eight acres. The original motel was built in 1967 and has 58 guest rooms. The council had extended the lodging moratorium and tweaked its language the night before the planning board did not allow the project to move forward because of the moratorium. The project’s 153-page development application was filed in June.
During the December planning board meeting that Salvatore wanted his comments to be what he felt would be more representative, he had said, “I came here with the Park Entrance Motel thrown into lodging six. I showed you what we wanted to do, how we could meet the ordinance, be conforming, how to avoid nonconformity, how to avoid a big, lengthy ugly process to fix a dilapidated property. I sat right there. I was told in the beginning that the moratorium didn’t apply to us because we were an existing use. We got that rug taken out from under us. I sat here and told you guys what we could do…. And this is what I get. This ordinance is Park Entrance and that’s it. It eliminates the project we brought before you.”
HOLY REDEEMER
The Bar Harbor Planning Board scheduled a public hearing for the Holy Redeemer Church’s request for a zone change for its lot on Mount Desert Street. The board also found it complete.
LAND USE AMENDMENTS MOVING FORWARD
The planning board moved multiple land use changes forward to its next February 4 meeting. At that February 4 planning board meeting, any changes would just be for typos and similar small changes. The amendments next go to town council on February 17. There can be small tweaks then as well.
“At that point the language will be set,” Acting Chair Ruth Eveland said.
There will be opportunity for public comment, but no changes in March when the council determines whether or not the amendments should go on the ballot.
“Today is really our last opportunity to weigh in,” Eveland said.
Those changes include design review, campground and campsites, multiple lodging amendments and area per family.
Design Review
Eveland said that she thinks there are a lot of changes, but that they are highly useful.
Campground and Campsites
“This is something that has been worked on for quite some time,” Eveland said.
Audience member Carol Chapell questioned bullet #6 in the summary of the land use ordinance. She wondered if the public would understand that there are other districts not mentioned where it is not allowed. It specifies the new places it isn’t.
“I’m afraid that might mix up the voter,” she said.
Code Enforcement Officer Mike Gurtler said that it’s there because the change would no longer allow the use there. He said he could add clarifying language.
Lodging
“Obviously, we’ve had a lot of discussion about this,” Eveland said of the multiple potential changes to the town’s lodging rules.
Potential changes to what types of lodgings are allowed in the town and how they are defined currently include replacing the term “guest room” with “guest unit” and establishing a minimum number of guest units and a maximum guest capacity, using state fire marshal’s formula for calculations.
Another change would remove L1 type of lodging from all districts. This type of lodging has been single family dwellings.
The town would also remove any “unused or inappropriate” lodging types from some districts, update parking requirements to reflect guest capacity, and remove the lodging expansion exception in the nonconformity section.
That exception allows lodging that have already existed in an area where they are not currently allowed to be built to be able to renovate in ways that the town considers expansion.
Member Theresa Wagner asked how the guest capacity per room interplays with the size.
There are multiple layers to the interplay, Gagnon said. One layer is in the definitions where lodging says the maximum amount of guests there are in that type of lodging. Another layer is in the proposed changes where there is a calculation for guest capacity based on the total area of square footage of the building for guests. There is a third layer for fire safety egress standards.
Minimum Area Per Family
“Area per family” is how much land each dwelling in a zone needs. It is regulated by towns or cities and meant to make sure that families have adequate space. However, the restriction can also prevent property owners from building accessory dwelling units on their lots and providing more homes.
This is proposed to change and be compliant with new state rules which are meant to encourage the creation of housing in Maine’s towns and cities.
Martinez suggested additional changes since the last iteration shown to the board in December. Those changes now fully meet state law and some portions go above and beyond state law for water and sewer, she said.
This is because the town can’t be more strict than the state law for designated growth areas.
Eveland said it makes more sense to do all the changes at once.
“People are concerned about too much density,” Wagner mentioned.
Wagner said she assumed that the staff would be able to convince her and others that the changes were fine even in high build-out areas.
Eveland said that having visual examples would help.
“Bar Harbor is a leader in the state in many ways. I don’t see why we can’t be a leader in this as well,” Eveland said.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To read the land use amendments, see the latest minutes, and agenda.
Follow us on Facebook. And as a reminder, you can easily view all our past stories and press releases here.
Bar Harbor Story is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks for being here with us and being part of our community too!
Thanks for reading Bar Harbor Story! This post is public so feel free to share it.
If you’d like to donate to help support us, you can, but no pressure! Just click here (about how you can give) or here (a direct link), which is the same as the button below.
If you’d like to sponsor the Bar Harbor Story, you can! Learn more here.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR COMMUNITY
Discover more from Bar Harbor Story
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.