Bar Harbor style zoning: If it quacks like a hotel, it must be a bed and breakfast ...
BAR HARBOR - Maybe someone with a more discerning eye can spot the tiny gradations among this town’s 40 zoning districts - a jigsaw puzzle which forms a monopoly game when done.
Why, for instance, is Planning Board chairman Tom St. Germain, while still in office, seeking to build a 44-room hotel on Cottage Street with no Planning Board approval when a few hundred yards away the exact same construction took one year of PB debate and then rejection by the board?
But hey, this is Bar Harbor and this is how they roll here, as in 2010 when Ocean Properties, by a single appeals board vote, was allowed to build its West Street Hotel, displacing an entire block of Bar Harbor history with a couple of bulldozers, resulting in one faux Vegas knockoff. Was there a design review board then?
Now comes SSC, LLC, fronted by St. Germain, to build a “bed and breakfast,” which has a lower zoning threshold than a hotel.
Stephen Coston, who was the beneficiary of St. Germain’s vote in 2017 to approve his Inn at Mount Desert as a B&B, is now his partner to construct a 44-room inn at 77 Cottage Street, site of an abandoned auto dealer and garage across from Jordan’s Restaurant.
It took two meetings in April for the design board to approve the B&B application with only a few requirements on lighting and fake balconies. When a board member asked about parking, St. Germain said that was not within the purview of the design board.
At the first meeting April 8, committee chair Barbara Sassaman and St. Germain jousted a bit on the size of the building and on the authority of the board.
“This is an immense building,” Sassaman said. “It's as big as Hannaford. I can't understand the scale of the building without seeing it in relation to the buildings next to it.”
But by the next meeting, St. Germain got what he needed from the design board after he produced artist renderings.
On the face of it, the application appears to violate code standards on several fronts - lot coverage, setback - and it’s unclear what underground parking will be required. Moreover, no one will know what is underground until it’s excavated. The property housed auto businesses. Fuel tanks could possibly be buried and contaminated soil will have to be remediated.
Residents already are up in arms.
On Facebook, Kim Sanborn wrote, “The proposed setbacks on Summer Street are Zero feet, with the side wall abutting the entirety of the Black Friar Inn and other houses on Summer (street) less than 2 feet away.
“This project would transform the neighborhood from being eclectic to being eradicated. It would probably be a really good time for the residents of West Street, Summer Street, and Bridge Street to hire legal counsel to have a voice in this project, as it has cloaked the involvement of its partners, Tom St. Germain, Stephen Coston, and Brian Shaw (builder) to date, and been submitted under the guise of a B&B.
“The West Street Hotel only has 85 (rooms) and didn't try to mask its efforts under the guise of a quaint B&B section of the ordinance.”
Code Enforcement Officer Angie Chamberlain said her office has not received any permit applications even though the design board approved it more than two months ago.
She will be under great pressure as the single authority standing between St. Germain and his “B&B.” Of course, then there is the business friendly appeals board, with two members, Mike Siklosi board chair Ellen Dohmen, who were instrumental in overturning the Planning Board rejection of West Street Hotel in 2010.
Four years ago, St. Germain went to school on how a “B&B” could be a backdoor around the zoning code when he and fellow board members Basil Eleftheriou and Alf Anderson approved Coston’s proposal to demolish a motel and erect a new inn, despite town attorney Ed Bearor’s opinion that it did not fit the definition of a B&B. Eleftheriou owns the Thirsty Whale Tavern. Anderson is director of the Chamber of Commerce.
Last year, Coston was investigated by police and state health inspectors alleged violations of the state-mandated pandemic protocols. He also was the only council member to vote against banning cruise ships during the pandemic.
SSC has hired lawyer Dan Pileggi, who did not return emails with questions on how St. Germain could do this as a sitting planning board chair. St. Germain also did not respond to a request for an interview.
Bar Harbor’s quilt-like ordinances were adopted by business people who dominate the boards and committees. Even though Bar Harbor is one of the most progressive communities in the entire country, the Indivisible crowd isn’t particularly interested in local issues.
More and more, the impact of these decisions are touching all residents.
Long-time Bridge Street denizen Elizabeth Kase, wrote on Facebook:
“The extra insult of that (B&B) proposal is that our year round neighborhood here on Bridge between Cottage and West has flourished with many year-round rentals and some of the best second-home owners around .. they are here at all times around the year and have become part of the fabric of our neighborhood.
“The neighborhood has many kids, children and grandchildren, bikes, motorized and unmotorized scooters, and when our set of summer neighbors come to stay for the season there’s baseball all around. Add to this mix the literal troops of people walking the street to stroll down to the sandbar at any low tide time.
“The irony is that we finally have achieved that mixed use neighborhood we’ve been looking for in terms of community.
“We certainly would not object to a REAL B&B .. 6 to 26 rooms ... nice amenities, maybe a tad upscale? Would be sweet and fit right in.
“After seeing and rolling with the changes in the 30 years we’ve lived on the block it would be a better choice.”
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One of the foremost authorities on MDI, Earl Brechlin, has entered his name for consideration for the planning board. Recently retired as communications director for Friends of Acadia, Brechlin spent 37 years as MDI’s local newspaper editor. He, along with outgoing Jesup library director and former town council chair, Ruth Eveland, would restore much needed gravitas and a sense of community for the planning board.
Guide to Quietside galleries, museum
SOMESVILLE - It’s a 16-minute drive, or 9.5 miles, from Tyra Hanson’s Gallery at Somes Sound to Ginny Lane and Mary Parkman’s Quietside Gallery in Bernard.
In between there are three galleries and a museum to enjoy paintings, sculptures, furniture and historic artifacts of the highest artistry.
With a stop for lunch at the Quietside Cafe it would make for a perfect rainy day activity.
GALLERY AT SOMES SOUND
Tyra Hanson, director of the Gallery at Somes Sound which is open seven days a week, started the gallery in Somesville 12 years ago in the building which formerly housed the Port in a Storm bookstore.
The gallery represents 37 artists, including five sculptors and 15 furniture makers on two floors in a ship-like building which seems to meld into the water.
CORNERSTONE GALLERY
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Business is robust at the Cornerstone Gallery, started by Chris Wade and her home builder husband David Wade in 2019 in the space formerly occupied by the Salty Dog Gallery in Southwest Harbor. The gallery features exclusively Maine artists like Judy Taylor of Seal Cove and has produced incredible videos on all of them.
Here is the page with all the videos. The gallery has an airy flow which shows off the Wades’ design sensibility.
WENDELL GILLEY MUSEUM
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - The Wendell Gilley Museum’s current exhibit is “Birds in Art” through Aug. 18 featuring work by 60 different contemporary artists. It is the 45th iteration of Birds in Art, an international exhibition organized by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin that travels to just a few select venues each year.
Wendell Gilley was a pioneer bird carver. He wrote “The Art of Bird Carving: A Guide to a Fascinating Hobby,” one of the earliest instructional books on the subject. By his estimate, he created “ten thousand birds of pine and paint” between 1931 and 1983. S
The museum is open Tuesdays through Fridays and requires an appointment which may be made online.
CLARK POINT GALLERY
SOUTHWEST - The Clark Point Gallery specializes in 19th and 20th century paintings of Maine and Mount Desert Island.
It has a remarkable collection of paintings of ships off the New England coast such as this one by S. F. M. Badger of Charlestown, Mass. (1873-1919) around 1902.
I spotted this Alex Katz work which QSJ would love to own.
QUIETSIDE GALLERY
TREMONT - Ginny Lane and Mary Parkman feature mostly their own work at the Quietside Gallery on quiet Bernard Road in a very quiet Bernard section of town. They also offer lessons. QSJ is signing up to learn how to do this.
THE STORE
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - While not exactly a gallery, there is plenty of art to enjoy at local builder Richard Bradford and his brother Michael Leslie’s eccentric collection of boat models, furniture and paintings at The Store next to Red Sky Cafe on Clark Point Road.
Keep Long Pond pristine; check your boat bottom before launch!
SOMESVILLE - MDI is a popular destination for millions of tourists. But it is not a magnet for the sports fisherman. Thank goodness.
Two years ago, the highly invasive variable-water milfoil weed was discovered in Big Lake, Washington County, the first time that happened in Northern Maine. For the most part milfoil has been contained to the densely populated lake region to the south.
As evident by the map below, MDI’s pristine lakes and ponds have survived most invasions of plant species which have plagued many lakes to the south. The species hitch rides on boats and trailers, and the contamination of Big Lake, the second largest in Washington County no doubt occurred when a fisherman from another infected lake launched his boat. Click here for the interactive version of the map below.
THE PUZZLE
Last week’s answers
