Aug 20, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by ArtWaves.
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND—Throughout August, planning boards and design review boards have been working at their various towns on projects that vary from fences to signage to potential land use (or LUZO) ordinance changes.
Because it’s been a busy summer for news, we’ve compiled a bit of a round-up here.
BAR HARBOR DESIGN REVIEW BOARD
Last week, Bar Harbor’s Design Review Board agreed to exterior changes at one of the town’s gas stations as well as an expansion of a building that houses an insurance office.
Sunoco, according to its representative, has updated its branding. A new proposed canopy would have one Sunoco logo and the gas price sign by the street would also be updated.
The gas station is located at 317 Main Street in Bar Harbor on property owned by Diwas Thapa.
Also on Main Street in Bar Harbor, the board approved Steve Demers’ request at 227 Main Street, the Lynam Building. The building is owned by Jeffrey Wooster.
According to a July 30 filing with the town, “The project consists of additions to 2 separate areas of the existing Lynam Building at 227 Main Street. “A new covered entrance and stairs will be constructed at the Northeast corner of the building, diagonally placed at a 45 degree angle to face the corner of Main St and Newton Way. It will tie into the existing ‘porch-like’ roof with a gable roof to match existing with decorative rafter tails.”
On the building’s west side there will be a new 24’5”x12’ office space.
All projects that have their designs approved by the Design Review Board also have to be approved either by the Planning Board or planning staff, depending on the project.
BAR HARBOR DESIGN REVIEW BOARD ELECTIONS
The Bar Harbor Design Review Board elected Barbara Sassaman as chair and Bo Jennings as vice chair. Pancho Cole was elected secretary. There is only one other member on the committee, Erin Cough, who can’t serve as a committee official because she holds an elected position on the town’s Warrant Committee.
Sassaman switched around the name plates for the positions.
BAR HARBOR PLANNING BOARD OFFICIALS
Town planning boards made quick work dealing with upcoming projects earlier this month despite Bar Harbor’s planning board postponing electing its officers until September.
Typically, officers in Bar Harbor are appointed by committees in July or early August, depending on the board’s meeting schedule.
However, Guy Dunphey requested postponing the election of officers until September in hopes of having a full board attending and that past chair Ruth Eveland be the acting chair for the meeting.
“I’m just grateful that we got enough people to attend today,” Eveland said and she greeted newly appointed members Margaret O’Neil and Jacqueline Levesque who were recently appointed to the board by the Bar Harbor Town Council.
John Seavitt attended via Zoom as he was on vacation. His attendance made five attendees.
Teresa Wagner and Kathy St. Germain were away and had excused absences.
There was no public comment at the meeting.
Still, certain typical aspects of the meeting had to be postponed such as the approval of minutes. This was because there weren’t four attending members at this meeting that were at the past meeting. Some minute corrections occurred such as the rectification of the misgendering of Guy Dunphey. The board unanimously approved delaying the business.
BAR HARBOR: KOA CAMPGROUND COMPLETENESS REVIEW
The Bar Harbor campground is requesting to add a few light poles to help with increasing the wi-fi available at the 29-acre property. This adds to the campground’s lot coverage though some of the mechanics are going to be mounted on pre-existing buildings or other structures.
The campground requested re-vegetating multiple sites to help with the campground’s overall lot coverage. The goal is to increase overall compliance with town rules for the site.
It’s a “costly but condensed system for the campground,” KOA’s representative said.
The project itself would install five 35-foot-high poles, six vault/pull boxes, pedestal receivers, cabinet receivers, and related hardware for an updated Wi-Fi system at 105 County Road in Town Hill.
BAR HARBOR: HOLY REDEEMER CHURCH REQUEST FOR A MINOR SITE PLAN REVIEW
The Holy Redeemer Church is constructing a parking lot on its west side. The staff is asking that the lot be a minor site plan and said that it wouldn’t have a significant impact. It’s 19 parking spaces that replace an existing grass area and it would be accessed via two curb cuts—one in and one out, Planning Director Michele Gagnon said.
A minor site plan review means that the town staff can review the plan rather than the board as a whole. It also means that the public won’t review any changes.
The board unanimously approved the request.
In June, Bar Harbor voters approved the church’s new zoning to downtown residential, 1600 to 350. The church’s goal was to allow the parking lot. Gagnon said the only comments the town had ever received were people speaking in favor of the project.
However, at a Town Council meeting, during public comment, Ellen Dohmen spoke to her concerns that the zoning change would be “spot” zoning, though she did not say she was against the project itself.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR IS LOSING MATT WILLIAMS
The Planning Board met to workshop a potential unified ordinance for the town and also discussed the departure of the Musson Group’s Matt Williams, who had been helping them with that work as well as other procedures and checklists.
Williams said during the meeting that he is moving.
His last meeting will be later this August. He is heading back to Maryland and possibly working with his uncle’s tech company.
“I’m actually going to work on a workbook for you guys,” Williams said. “We’ll go over the workbooks.”
One planning board member suggested adding a column for N/A (not applicable). Creating a cheat sheet workbook for both current and future board members so that they know the lingo and the defined process was a goal and in process, Williams said.
The goal is to keep things clear, motions making sense and formal and followable, as well as move the meeting in a forward direction.
That also could have the completeness before the performance standards for projects. Currently, it’s standards first, Williams said. This is how it’s done in other Hancock County towns, such as Bar Harbor, which allows for the application to be as thorough and complete as possible. This often spreads the process over a couple meetings if an application is missing information.
He’ll also try to make a flow chart.
“There’s a shared responsibility. You’re all a team,” he said.
There’s a lot of confusion, he said, in many communities about the roles of different boards and committees. The planning board is meant to review projects.
Williams had been working with the town about updating its ordinances.
At the planning board level, they also spoke to how applicants apply for waivers and its requirements. That should be on the applicant to provide evidence or proof of why the waiver is required, but currently, the way things are written, Williams said, it’s up to the Planning Board, which makes it more subjective.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR: HINCKLEY HUT, RESIDENTIAL PIER
At its August 4 meeting, the Southwest Harbor Planning Board determined an after-the-fact permit was okay for the Hinckley Quonset Hut building, a 7,200 square foot structure at the Hinckley site.
In an earlier meeting this summer, the Southwest Harbor Planning Board determined that reconstruction of a permanent residential pier with seasonal float located at 30 Connor Point Lane was fine.
Site plan review in the towns only are required for commercial piers. There had been a previous dock in the same location.
The property is in the town’s Residential Shoreland Zone.
Chalmers Enterprises of Southwest Harbor will be doing the work, which is estimated to cost $142,500. There was no public comment.
MOUNT DESERT: PLANNING BOARD
In July, the Mount Desert Planning Board approved the conditional use application for Ken Winikur & Kathryn Ramey ‘s dock at 5 Red Spruce Way, Mount Desert.
The group also worked with Williams on several draft forms and other work such as Shoreland Nonconforming Checklist and Structures & Subdivision Application Checklists.
In August, its meeting focused on two applications.
The first was a conditional use approval application for a fence by the GST Exempt Trust FBO at 6 Whoville Way, Seal Harbor. That was continued to the board’s September 23 meeting. Public comment will be possible at that time. The fence has already been built, but not yet approved.
The Mount Desert Elementary School’s needs to replace a window with a door and construct a 31’ X 14’ open frame deck with an attached 19’ X 5’ ADA ramp were approved. The school, located at 8 Joy Road, was represented by Scott Watson, who is the operations coordinator for the MDIRSS/AOS district.
SOME LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Southwest Harbor Planning Board packet
SWH Planning Board meeting recording
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/1B8wIO3GMCQ?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0
RECENT PRESS RELEASES AND BRIEFS
To see all the press releases, click here. To see our news, click here. For the full archive, click here. All of these are on our dedicated website.
Discover more from Bar Harbor Story
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.