BREAKING NEWS: Bar Harbor Town Council approves town manager's cruise ship caps

Other news: Removal of two-thirds majority on land-use questions, marijuana sales head to November ballot

BAR HARBOR, Aug. 17, 2022 - The Town Council voted 5-2 last night to approve Town Manager Kevin Sutherland’s cruise ship reduction plan, and authorized him to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Cruise Lines International Association.

The plan calls for a cap of 3,800 passengers disembarking per day in September and October, the height of the season. It also has a monthly cap of 65,000 for those months and bars any visits in April and November.

Council member Joe Minutolo voted no, saying the cap was not enough and cited studies which showed that 2,000 passengers a day is a stress point for the town. Member Gary Friedmann first said he would support the plan but changed his vote after Minutolo spoke.

It remains to be seen how effective the Cruise Management Plan will be since it gives the harbor master discretion to allow a ship to bring in 200 more passengers a day for an effective cap of 4,000. The current effective cap is 5,700.

The plan favors larger ships such as the Norwegian Breakaway with 3,963 passengers. Between now until the end of the 2022 season Norwegian Breakaway has 11 visits to Bar Harbor. Under the plan, no other ship may visit at the same time.

The key points of the Cruise Management Plan are:

Minutolo previously said he favored the plan drawn up last year by then member Val Peacock which capped visits to 2,500 a day during the peak times. But the working group of Peacock (who is now chair), member Jill Goldthwait, Sutherland, harbor master Chris Wharff and tourism expert Sarah Flink could not convince CLIA to go below 4,000 passengers a day.

The key points of the Val Peacock Plan rejected by the industry:

The council became gun shy after Sutherland, in his first month on the job, engaged a maritime lawyer who laid out the risks of legal action by the industry.

Citizens will have an opportunity to approve a much more aggressive visitation cap in November when a proposed amendment to the land-use ordinance would prohibit more than 1,000 persons a day, including crew, to disembark on any Bar Harbor property. That citizens petition was lead by resident Charles Sidman.

The council action Tuesday night dealt a major blow to its cruise ship committee, which wanted the council to restore April and May, and the 5,500 cap for September and October, but keeping the 65,000 monthly cap. The voting members of that committee are mostly businesses which directly benefit from cruise ship visits.

In other business, the council voted 6-1 to place on the November ballot a warrant to remove the two-third voter requirement to overturn a Planning Board decision.

Member Erin Cough was the only vote against. She failed to disclose that her husband, Joseph Clough, is a member of the Planning Board and voted against last year’s ordinance change to cap vacation rentals even though he is in the vacation rental business. The planning board deadlocked 2-2, and voters approved the cap. But Cough and then chairman Tom St. Germain, who also runs a vacation rental business, said a two-third vote was required at the ballot box.

The council also voted to place on the November ballot for voters to consider “an Adult Use Marijuana Store Licensing Ordinance, allowing for the licensing of retail marijuana stores in zoning districts in which retail is an allowed use.”

The council appointed Calistra Martinez of the comprehensive planning committee to fill the vacancy on the Planning Board left by St. Germain.