BREAKING NEWS: Bar Harbor warrant committee boots out members who own VRs in debate, vote
BAR HARBOR, Sept. 3, 2021 - In an extraordinary session, the warrant committee voted 7-2 Thursday night to remove members who declared they own a vacation rental home from deliberations and then voted 8-1 to recommend passage of an amendment to the land-use ordinance curtailing such rentals.
The discussion over the town’s conflict of interest ethics code was triggered by member Carol Chappell’s declaration that she owned vacation rental homes. The board debated the issue for about a half hour until the vote was taken sans the six members who had declared such a conflict. They were chair Seth Libby, Caleb Cough, Jeffery Young, Bethany Reece and Steve Boucher, in addition to Chappell.
The entire discussion and vote may be seen on Town Hall Streams about 30 minutes into the meeting. The vote to remove the six members occurred around the 1:00.45 hour mark.
The members then voted to recommend the amendment with only Kevin DesVeaux opposing. Voting in favor were Julie Berberian, Robert Chaplin, Meagan Kelly, Cara Ryan, Allison Sasner, Ezra Sassaman, Chris Smith and Kathleen St. Germain.
The Warrant Committee meeting couldn’t have been more different than the Planning Board meeting the previous night where no discussion occurred around the vacation rentals owned by chair Tom St. Germain’s wife and member Joseph Cough’s family.
Conflicting legal opinions were flying Friday on the consequences of the PB’s 2-2 tie vote as to whether that was a non-action or a rejection of the proposed amendment, which would require a supermajority override at the Nov. 2 referendum.
The amendment proposes to bar current owners from transferring their permits until the percentage of vacation rental homes in town decline to 9 percent of the town’s 2,700 homes.
Advocates have charged that owners who previously rented their homes to year-round tenants have greatly exacerbated the town’s affordable housing crisis by turning their homes into short-term vacation rentals.