Is Downtown Bar Harbor a firetrap as employers stuff houses beyond what’s permitted?
BAR HARBOR - David Witham is playing with fire.
The hotelier housed 15 employees in a dwelling not zoned for that use. That’s 10 more than what’s allowed by the town.
On Aug. 1, Witham escaped major disaster after a faulty bathroom fan ignited a fire at the three-floor house on 30 First South Street around 2 p.m., when most of the occupants had already left for their jobs at Bar Harbor Inn which Witham owns. Twelve hours earlier or later, it might have been a different story.
The circumstances were eerily similar to a fire in Portland in 2014 when six persons perished and the landlord spent three months in jail, said Greg Day, supervisor of inspectors at the state fire marshall’s office.
Yet Bar Harbor officials seem unconcerned about the density of the housing and number of persons crammed into that section of town. Fire Chief Matt Bartlett does not inspect employee housing, only vacation rentals. QSJ asked him for the incident report on the Witham fire. He said he would email it but didn’t.
Any dwelling with more than five unrelated persons is not a permitted use in that “village transitional” zone, said Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain. Inspectors for New England Fire Cause and Origin, working for the insurance company, said the Witham house had 15 occupants.
The unregulated workforce housing creates two problems, say neighbors: unsafe conditions and contributing to the decline of year-round housing on MDI.
Sharon Knopp, who lives on Pleasant Street, said, “Seasonal workers bring a welcome diversity to our town. They have a right to be housed in buildings that are safe, clean and well maintained. Residents have a right to know that these buildings are not creating a public safety hazard in our neighborhoods and in our town.”
Neighbors said in addition to 30 First South Street, there are three other employee houses on that street. One of them is 9 First South Street owned by restaurateur Michael Boland. QSJ sent Boland a photograph of the house, and asked whether he owned it. Boland replied:
“That is my house. I’m embarrassed that I’ve let the landscaping get to that point and reached out to a company last night to get it cleaned up. Why don’t you go take another picture on Friday and stop muckraking.” (QSJ considers it high compliment to be labeled a “muckracker” in the tradition of Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens)
Boland seemed concerned only about the overgrowth. QSJ asked him how many persons lived in the house and whether it had been inspected and did not get a reply. Boland’s house is only a few feet away from another house. The density of the area has neighbors worried.
“It is very fortunate that no one was injured in the recent house fire on First South Street,” said Enoch Albert, husband of Sharon Knopp. “It should not take serious injuries or deaths of employees before the town takes action to inspect and regulate these houses.”
The couple and another, Phil and Mary Galperin, wrote a letter to the Islander , which stated, “Seasonal employee housing should be subject to the same registration, fire and safety inspections required of vacation rentals. We think it’s beyond time that the town addressed this issue. Only then can the town gather reliable data and work to understand the public safety and other consequences of having more of these houses in our residential neighborhoods.
Bar Harbor requires vacation rentals to register with the town and pay $250 toward a code inspection. It has about 550 vacation rentals registered.
No one knows exactly how many employees are housed in town. A 2019 survey was confusing, the couples stated, and the results, 88 buildings, 44 single family homes and 219 apartments, did not have context.
This is not just a Bar Harbor problem. Virtually every restaurant in Southwest Harbor provides employee housing. Yet there is no regulation, no fire code inspection of either workforce housing or vacation rental.
QSJ used data from Airdna.com to determine that the three smaller towns on MDI have more vacation rental units, 600, than Bar Harbor.
Squeezing out year-round residents by corporate owners has a long history in Bar Harbor, such as when Ocean Properties took over 16 federally subsidized housing on West Street Extension.
“When an Ocean Properties affiliate purchased the property in 2012, it engaged in a mass eviction … Parents, children and disabled tenants were speedily evicted by this huge hotel/resort company so that it could house its own temporary seasonal workers there,” she wrote in a letter to the Islander.
“My family lives one street over from Acadia Apartments. We heard the stories of our former neighbors shuffling from temporary housing from town to town, trying to find any place at all to live. Children had to leave our excellent Bar Harbor schools because their parents could not find affordable housing.”
“They are the slumlords of Bar Harbor,” said Mary Galperin of the landlords who peddle substandard housing to their employees.
If someone as conscientious and community-minded as David Witham has to cut corners, what does that portend for businesses that are not as well-heeled? How rampant is the problem?
Witham did not return a call from QSJ. His lawyer, Patrick Morgan, said the company does not wish to comment beyond that it’s grateful there were no injuries and that the matter is now between the fire inspectors and the insurance company.
Greg Day of the state fire marshall’s office said there are 441 municipalities in Maine all facing the same pressure. “It’s really up to the towns to enforce local code. But often there is nobody to police it.
“I hope people do the right thing.”
SOMESVILLE, Aug. 21, 2121 - The Quietside is about to get rocked again by two zoning wars entering a new stage of mano a mano combat. And one lawyer has an outsized influence on both cases.
First, the case of the Hall Quarry residents versus the firms seeking to resume stone-cutting operations is returning to the Mount Desert planning board. The applicant’s lawyer Ed Bearor wrote Code Enforcement Officer Kim Keene Aug. 16 seeking to be placed on the agenda.
It’s not clear whether the applicant still wants a waiver from having to widen the road to the quarry. Board attorney James Collier disclosed in March that Keene had determined Crane Road may not be wide enough. QSJ reported in April that Collier had been negotiating with Bearor in private for 18 months to resolve the issue and only disclosed it publicly at Keene’s insistence.
The appearance of giving Bearor special treatment received strong blowback from attorneys representing the residents fighting the quarry. Then on July 13, at a Planning Board meeting in Tremont, where he is town attorney, Collier once again appeared to favor a business applicant over protesting residents.
West Tremont residents are fighting a similar battle against a developer which wants to build a 43-acre campground in a residential neighborhood.
Collier urged Tremont board member Brett Witham not to be “as afraid as you are about what people bought into,” in reference to residents who moved into a neighborhood never expecting a huge development to emerge. That is the same issue in Hall Quarry.
“I’m not afraid about that. I’m respectful,” Witham shot back.
“Me too,” said Collier. “But when they bought into something called ‘light commercial’ and you can’t define it, what did they buy?” View Collier’s comment at the 45:30 minute of this video.
The Planning Board had sought Collier’s advice on steps to remedy vague language plaguing the town’s “residential/business zone.”
Collier is an unusually loquacious lawyer who waxes broadly about a number of issues in public. At the Tremont meeting, he twice cited Mount Desert’s Quarry ordinance as an example of poorly written, undefined and vague language:
“The best practicable means of reducing noise shall be employed which may including the use of sound reduction equipment, acoustic enclosures or sheds, limiting on-site speeds to no more than 10 mph, or other best industry practices for noise attenuation, to the extent permitted by state and federal laws and regulations.”
“Best practicable means?” Collier said.
On Monday night, he is expected to be present at the Tremont select board’s special meeting to discuss a petition by 168 residents for a question to be placed on the Nov. 2 ballot to place a moratorium on campground applications. Before the public meeting he is scheduled to meet the select members in a private “executive session.”
The battle over Acadia Wilderness Lodge, the “glamping resort” formerly known as a campground, has a second important meeting on Tuesday when the Planning Board has the harder task to divine a path forward without “lawsuit” written all over it.
The PB must rule on whether the application is a existing one or a new one. Ruling it an existing application would give the PB time to approve it in early September. That would shelter it from the moratorium’s condition that any decision after Sept. 17 would be nullified.
If the board rules that a new application is required, that would put it on a schedule where approval is unlikely to avert the moratorium’s cut-off date.
The citizen petitioners argued that the AWL application has changed so much that the planning board must require a new application from the owners. Presumably, the applicant would have to perform new engineering reports and due diligence - a process which would take months.
Lawyers for AWL asserted in a memo that the reduction of 154 camping sites - including 72 RVs - to 55 luxury yurts was a mere modification of the application.
The citizens’ petition for the moratorium has a retroactive clause dating back to Aug. 2, 2021.
“This moratorium shall govern and apply to all proceedings and applications for campgrounds that were or are pending before the Town on or at any time after August 2, 2021, and … shall apply to and nullify any lawful final approval, license or permit for a campground issued less than 45 days prior to the Effective Date.”
That would nullify any action by the Planning Board taken after Sept. 17, 2021. But what if the losing side appeals? And what if it goes to the Superior Court after appeal? And what if it goes to the state Supreme Court which could take two years?
What exactly is “lawful final approval?” Suppose the Planning Board approves the application on Sept. 17, but the state courts overturn the decision two years from now. Which the “lawful final approval?”
Then there is the matter of Beth Gott’s conflict as a member of the Planning Board. She is likely to recuse herself because her company did the site prep work for AWL’s smaller campground on Kelleytown Road.
That would leave the board with four voting members. In the event of a tie, any motion would not carry. For instance, a motion to continue the application as is would not carry in a tie. The select board’s approval of Beth Gott was a pyrrhic victory because she will be sidelined for all the AWL discussions. And she has only 10 months left on her one-year appointment.
The owners, Kenya and James Hopkins, have themselves to blame for this hot mess, with their disingenuous, original proposal for that massive development which would have been the biggest in town history, tucked inside a residential neighborhood. Was that a Trojan horse? Were they testing the neighbors? Was the 55-yurt campground their intended outcome all along?
Meanwhile, “The Hall Quarry Quarrel” is entering its eighth season.
The protagonists are the granite company Freshwater Stone, its landlord, Harold MacQuinn Inc., Hans Utsch and Julia Merck from across Somes Sound, a Hall Quarry neighborhood group and the abutting neighbors.
The loud-screeching cutting of granite hasn’t really been active since the 1970s after which many homes were built around the dormant quarry. An attempt to restart it met with a stop order in 2008. That triggered a series of legal moves in the longest zoning fight in MDI history.
QSJ wrote a summary of the fight in October 2020.
The case took a sharp turn in March when the width of the access road became the focus.
Collier wrote in a March 24 email that Crane Road may not be wide enough and that the applicant has had a year and a half to resolve the issue and, “So far, they have been unable to do so.”
That touched off an exchange between Collier and Roger J. Katz, who is representing members of the Hall Quarry Neighborhood Group, and Daniel A. Pileggi, who is representing the abutters.
Katz said the fact that the applicant had this information “for up to two years” and neither the Planning Board nor interested parties was informed, “and the fact that it is only now, in the bottom of the ninth inning, that you are letting us know, is unsettling to say the least.”
Collier, who called Katz and Pileggi “whiners” in a telephone conversation with QSJ, replied to them in an email, “You guys make it sound like there is some sort of conspiracy going on. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is the normal process of working on a minor technical issue with an applicant.
“As you know, the CEO (chief enforcement officer), the Planning Board and I are neither for, nor against the application, and we all endeavor to treat everybody fairly, including the Applicant.
“With COVID concerns, it seemed like we were on a slow boat toward getting this thing wrapped up. The CEO (code enforcement officer) wanted to raise the issue much earlier on, but I wanted to hold off until we fully explored all possible solutions.”
New appeals board candidate withdraws in Tremont
TREMONT - Select member Howdy Goodwin’s hope for another candidate to emerge for the appeals board other than Richard Cohen has been dashed after David Edson withdrew his name from consideration Friday morning.
Edson, who runs a forestry consulting business based in Old Town, was first mentioned in an Aug. 18 town manager’s memo to select members, and was still on the Monday board agenda until Friday afternoon.
“We have received two applications for this seat, one from Richard Cohen and one from David Edson,” Town Manager Jesse Dunbar wrote. “Should you wish to make an appointment, I respectfully suggest passage of a motion to appoint {InsertName} to the seat on the Appeals Board with term expiring at Town Meeting 2024.”
The select board will have a second chance to consider Cohen at its meeting Monday night after summarily dismissing him Aug. 2 without much discussion and without interviewing Cohen, who attended the meeting.
They voted quickly after Goodwin said, “I think we should table this until we get more applicants.” Member Kevin Buck made a motion to appoint Cohen which was defeated. Joining Goodwin in rejecting Cohen were McKenzie Jewett and Jamie Thurlow. Eric Eaton did not attend the Aug. 2 meeting.
Thurlow said in an email to QSJ Thursday, “I believe it is very important when appointing members to boards that you make informed decisions. At the time of the last meeting I did not feel as I had had the proper time to get to know Mr. Cohan (sic) and felt I needed more time to do so before making my decision. After getting to sit down and talk to Mr. Cohan I feel that I am properly informed now to make a decision. I think the town would be very fortunate to have either Mr. Cohan or Mr. Edson representing them.”
The select board’s decision was criticized by residents, including two members of the appeals board.
“I am a member of the Appeals Board and I am appalled by the behavior of our BOS. I plan on attending the next Board meeting to express my unhappiness,” said Mike Hays. Appeals chair Joanne Harris also criticized the decision.
Cohen has an extraordinary resume of service to municipal boards and committees in New Jersey. He became a seasonal Tremont resident in 1977 and moved here after he retired.
He was attorney for a New Jersey equivalent of a municipal appeals board, represented developers in front of planning boards, was general counsel for a town of 15,000, school board member in a town of 50,000, school board member for a vocational school in a county of 650,000 and member of a sewer authority in a town with 35,000.
And he was on New Jersey’s state appellate court, which hears nothing but appeals.
In an interview on Wednesday, Edson said he had “the utmost respect for Mr. Cohen” and that this was not a contest to see who was better qualified.
In 2017 Maine Magazine’s website published a short article about Edson’s forestry management skills.
“One of his favorite projects has been assessing the impact of the spruce budworm on Maine’s forests. During the last outbreak in the 1970s and 1980s, the insect killed between 20 and 25 million cords of spruce and fir, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue for the forestry industry, according to a 2016 report on how the state is preparing for the next infestation.” QSJ called Edson Friday for a confirmation of his withdrawal which he did in an email but also stated he did not wish to comment further.
Cohen in July participated in a neighborhood “town hall” where he told Acadia Wilderness Lodge owners he opposed their application for their massive campground in a residential neighborhood.
Edson was one of 168 signatories of the citizens petition to seek a townwide moratorium which is also on the select board’s agenda Monday.
On June 21, select member Jewett raised the issue of spending more time deliberating over board and committee candidates before perfunctorily approving them.
Shortly after, the board added David “Jed” Campbell to the appeals board as an alternate without waiting to see who else would apply. Campbell is a perennial candidate who has run or applied for virtually every town board or committee.
Campbell has lived in Tremont all his life and worked at McEachern & Hutchins for almost 40 years. A former member of the Warrant Committee and Recreation Board, and the MDI High School Board of Trustees, he ran for the school board in 2019 and the select board in 2021 which he lost.
“Usually I’m one of the first to volunteer when a board has an opening,” Campbell told the Islander.
Campbell applied for the full board and Goodwin quickly nominated him. But Jewett had pause. “This is one that I want to think about,” she said. But the appeals board also had a vacancy for an alternate, and Thurlow quickly moved to name him as an alternate which was approved unanimously.
Mount Desert’s refund to septic owners is one of a kind in Maine
SOMESVILLE - Mount Desert’s unique answer to the inequity of rural homeowners who don’t benefit from town’s municipal sewer system is to pay them, to the tune of more than $600 a year for year-round residents.
Town Manager Durlin Lunt said the town voted down a proposed sewer fee several times before agreeing on two programs in 2004 - one for seasonals and one for year-round residents. To receive the septic tank rebate, a year-round resident must qualify for the state’s homestead exemption, a property tax waiver up to $25,000 of a property’s assessment.
“Currently there are approximately 341 property owners on the Rural Wastewater Rebate Program,” said Code Enforcement Officer Kim Keene. “That total changes from year to year, as homestead properties sell from year to year.
“The seasonal program, varies from year to year also.
“The year-round residents who quality for a homestead exemption get a rebate every year … as long as their taxes are current and they pump their tanks out every four years and get an inspection from the Local Plumbing Inspector.
“The seasonal property owner's get the pumping reimbursement if they have their tank pumped every four years and get an inspection by the Local Plumbing Inspector.
About 1,000 of the 1,900 households in town are customers of the sewer system.
Lincoln’s Log
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - In its second year, the Acadia Family Center Art Auction Benefit supports the center’s therapeutic programs. The auction’s 30 contributing artists and collectors share pieces that help shed light on the important connection between personal expression, the creative process and well-being. Expressive therapy (art therapy) is an important part of substance use and mental health treatments.
The auction ends Sept. 6.