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Hospital Hopes to Discontinue Stanwood Place Sanctuary community thoughts, potential changes to land use ordinance, and other Bar Harbor Town Council discussions Carrie Jones Nov 21, 2024 The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Swan Agency Real Estate. BAR HARBOR—Mount Desert Island Hospital is asking that Stanwood Place, a small road in the hospital’s downtown campus be discontinued as a town road. The ask is part of the hospital’s expansion plans. The road extends from Main Street toward the building. Mount Desert Island Hospital hopes to expand and modernize its main Bar Harbor campus, including its emergency department, planning to begin work in 2025 on a 42,600-square-foot expansion. The plans would triple the emergency department’s current footprint to 10,524 square feet along with other improvements. That expansion would allow for 16 care spaces, numerous triage areas, better airflow (to reduce potential for infectious airborne disease spread), and more patient rooms. via Zillow via hospital application earlier this year On Tuesday, November 19, the Bar Harbor Town Council took the first step in that road discontinuance process, which will include a public hearing. How roads are discontinued is ruled by state statue, and, in this case, also town rules. A road in Trenton similarly just underwent the same process. When a town discontinues a road, it returns to the abutting property owners. For Stanwood Place, the only abutting property owner is the hospital, said Town Manager James Smith. Councilor Matthew Hochman asked about potential payment from the hospital for the swap, since the hospital is gaining land from the town. The town felt that the swap was in the greater interest of the site and the hospital agreed to close a curb cut on Main Street, which means that the town gained an additional parking space. This, Smith said, made it seem an even swap. The council voted 6-1 in favor of the process. Hochman voted against. GRANTS, STUDIES, AND APPOINTMENTS Smith said that the town has started a transfer station facility study, which will likely have findings back in December or January. The target signs on some buildings on Cottage Street are part of comprehensive detailed survey work and data collection. Those findings will be presented in spring. The Harbormaster is working toward a state grant for the ferry terminal project, which then might open federal funds for the demo work at the Route 3 site, which is a step toward a boat launch and potential marina. The town has applied for an EPA Brownfield grant for the YMCA property on Park Street, and should know in April if that has been approved. Kathy St. Germain was appointed to the planning board. Larry Sweet was appointed to the high school board of trustees to fill a vacancy. The councilors approved an order that memorializes the language that had been discussed and was funded in the last budget for police officers’ and dispatchers’ retirement plans. They also approved the reimbursement payout plans for health reimbursements, following the IRS guidelines on that benefit. SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DATA WORK Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt said the town is collecting data about the town’s carrying capacity, focusing on areas served by existing utility structure. “We’re really looking at the maximum capacity available” for future growth and capacity, Leavitt said. To do so, the town will look at capacity indicators to determine what that maximum capacity is, Leavitt said. When that is complete, they’ll also be able to look at the change over time. “It’s basically to define the carrying capacity so that we can assess the sustainability of growth and expansion,” in the town and then use that information to make data-driven decisions, Leavitt said. It will also help prioritize the infrastructure projects. Christian Gilbert, the water division’s office manager, has said it was about looking at the past and how to entertain changes in the future. Smith said the work is an outgrowth of prior council workshops and the recent League of Town meeting about the island’s carrying capacity and sustainability. “We’re trying to be proactive at this point to go and get this data to establish a baseline,” Smith said. PUBLIC COMMENT ABOUT SANCTUARY CITIES During public comment, Anna Durand worried about the potential deportation of immigrants under the upcoming Trump presidency and how will Bar Harbor will react. “I hope you will think ahead to the coming executive orders that will try to ban sanctuary communities like ours,” Durand said. Durand addressed Smith about preparations for the town to mitigate the potential loss of funding for line items in its budget. She also addressed Police Chief David Kerns, saying, “You may well worry about morale on the force when your officers are required to participate in separating family members from each other and their homes and employment.” Her comments came as many immigration rights groups in Maine have publicly expressed concern for potential changes to immigration law and policy. Maine Public writes that President-Elect Donald Trump has said on social media that “he would declare a national emergency and seek to mobilize the military to carry out that plan.” In 2017, after a citizens’ petition, Mount Desert voters declared 101-59 that the town would be a “sanctuary community.” The non-binding resolution hoped to “protect the independence of our local law enforcement by refusing to require police or town employees to serve as enforcers of federal immigration law.” It was the first town in Maine to do so. That same year, Bar Harbor residents voted 351-62 to support declaring the town a sanctuary community. Also in public comment, Enoch Albert spoke positively about the map created for the town’s safety plan, Safe Streets for All. The map allows people to input worries and safety concerns on Bar Harbor’s streets. Though the online plan has closed for input, the map at the main level of the town’s municipal building on Cottage Street will be available for input through early or mid December, according to Hailey Bondy, staff planner, Wednesday night. FINANCIAL REPORT The town is four months into the town budget for the fiscal year and revenues are at 41%, which Finance Director Sarah Gilbert said was favorable. The Conners-Emerson permits and the harbor revenues were higher than expected. Parking is just under $3.3 million net of fees. “There are no anomalies at this point,” Gilbert said. For expenditures, the town is at 30%. Legal is trending higher, seasonal ground maintenance and cleaning services, YMCA and Jesup payments have all contributed. The town is currently at 103% of its budgeted town attorney fees. PLANNING DEPARTMENT Planning Director Michele Gagnon gave a quick summary of the six potential land use amendments that her department is working on. Those include striking the term “grandfathering” from the town’s land use ordinance and tweaking the Salisbury Cove setback along Route 3 from 150 feet to 75, to conform with a neighboring district. Other potential changes involve registry of deed notification, phasing approvals, adding language about capacity for projects, and language involving campgrounds, multi-family units as well as registration requirements for owner-occupied short-term rentals (VR-1). “The amendment would modify the definitions of campground and individual private campsite and add a definition of temporary camping vehicles,” Gagnon wrote in a November 14 memo to the council. “It would also add and/or amend the standards for the three uses. It would allow individual private campsites in the resource protection, shoreland limited residential, and stream protection districts, and would allow the new use, temporary camping vehicles, in 24 of the 40 districts.” The changes to short-term rentals were also explained in the memo. “The amendment would remove the transition clause that was needed when we placed a cap on VR-2s. It takes the ‘length of stay’ out of the definitions and gives it its own section. It redefines the definition of ‘primary residence.’ It places the ‘determination of residency’ in Chapter 174, short-term rental registrations,” Gagnon wrote. COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilors Earl Brechlin, Hochman, and Joe Minutolo, as well as Chair Valerie Peacock thanked the election staff. Brechlin also thanked the planning staff for the work on the residency requirements for VR1s. Councilor Kyle Shank said that the way we speak to each others matters. In the past couple of months, he said, the way people speak to each other, doesn’t make people feel deeply positive about the community. Hochman mentioned the Conners Emerson Schools’ groundbreaking. He invited people to the production of Chicago! at the high school and Vice Chair Gary Friedmann thanked the people who voted for him to legislature. Friedmann will be sworn in on December 4 and he may have to zoom in to council meetings. Minutolo congratulated departing Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain on her new position in Tremont and said she’d be missed. Peacock said she went to the Conners Emerson tree planting. She thanked all the town staff for their continuous care and work. LINKS TO LEARN MORE Read the packet Watch the discussion A NOTE FROM US This is Carrie and Shaun, and as you’ve probably noticed, we’ve been working hard at the Bar Harbor Story, providing local news in a way that keeps you informed, but also embraces and promotes community and the good that is within it. We take so much time—just the two of us, with a special needs kid that has to be homeschooled—to cover our island community’s (plus, Trenton) local news in a way that’s timely, daily, and remembers that underneath the news . . . there are people who are our neighbors. We are working hard to get the news out there—for free—for everyone. But it’s taking its toll on our family financially and honestly, sometimes, emotionally, because frontline local news in a small community? It’s hard. Most media isn’t local (even when it claims it is). Most media has paywalls and advertisers. We don’t. That’s not a smart financial decision for us. It’s a moral one. 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Hospital Hopes to Discontinue Stanwood Place

Sanctuary community thoughts, potential changes to land use ordinance, and other Bar Harbor Town Council discussions Carrie Jones Nov 21, 2024 Share The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Swan Agency Real Estate. BAR HARBOR—Mount Desert Island Hospital is asking that Stanwood Place, a small road in the hospital’s downtown campus be discontinued as a town road. The ask is part of the hospital’s expansion plans. … Continue reading Hospital Hopes to Discontinue Stanwood Place

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