BREAKING NEWS: BH Planning Board mulls St. Germain plan to move old house into more restrictive lodging district
OTHER NEWS: PB approves Town Council hearing to overturn cruise ship ordinance
BAR HARBOR, July 5, 2024 - Tom St. Germain, former chair of the Planning Board and a creative user of the town’s land-use ordinance, received oral support from most of the board Wednesday to relocate a 100-year-old building into a potentially more restrictive residential zone where only buildings built before June 1986 could have up to 12 rooms.
A majority of the board appeared ready to approve St. Germain’s request even though he was only asking for guidance.
“If a TA (transit accommodation zone) was to have another older building moved to its site, how would the planning board feel about that?” St. Germain asked. “It's kind of a riddle, I guess, to figure it out.”
Only member Elissa Chesler, who was attending her last meeting, questioned whether it would set a precedent to allow existing, older buildings to be moved to circumvent the intent of the proposed ordinance.
“A lot hinges on what is meant by existing?” Chesler said.
“Existing on the site, existing on Planet Earth, existing in that district?
“The intent in the ordinance is clear, it's not silent at all … It's to preserve or maintain many of Bar Harbor’s residential structures. So I think that's an important consideration. Is this satisfying that intent?”
St. Germain replied, “I hadn't considered that, you know, looking at the word existing or not. However, the intent of this is to preserve the former water company building of the town. I've owned that for 11 years. I'd like to redevelop the property. I really don't want to demolish it. So I've been looking for nearby sites and one site has come up that would allow us to move the building without demolishing it and preserve it. So it fits as as the preservation aspect. The existing one, that's an interesting angle that I hadn't considered.”
(Preservation of older buildings was not the main consideration of a proposed change to the transient lodging rules. St. Germain, while still chair of the Planning Broad in 2021, sparked an outcry in 2021 when he successfully ushered through a proposal to build a 44-room hotel on Cottage Street by calling it a “bed and breakfast,” which required only approval by the town’s design board. The new changes were proposed to stem such large B&Bs in neighborhoods but protecting existing uses.)
St. Germain said, “If a another building were moved there (TA4 zone), then the number of rooms would then get into the 10 or 11 rooms.”
St. Germain said he still hadn’t worked out all the specifics for an application but chair Millard Dority, who said the discussion was “fun,” and vice chair Ruth Eveland appeared ready to approve St. Germain’s proposal on the spot.
“I don't know how the new the new proposals for transient accommodations would affect this definition,” St. Germain said. I hadn't considered that either. I guess I was not as prepared as I should have been.
“But the major question I wanted was the board's opinion on the idea of ‘is it existing, where was it existing before?’ ”
St. Germain was the last item on the agenda Wednesday. You may follow the entire discussion on Town Hall Streams.
In other action, the board approved unanimously the Town Council’s request for a public hearing Aug. 7 to air changes to the cruise ship ordinance approved by voters on Nov. 8, 2022 to use the land-us ordinance to cap cruise visitation to 1,000 passengers a day.
“At its meeting Tuesday, June 18, 2024 the Town Council passed Order 2024-06-15, directing me to submit on behalf of the Council a written request to the Planning Board to consider at a public hearing the attached draft Land Use Ordinance Amendment entitled Cruise Ship Disembarkation,” wrote council chair Val Peacock.
“This amendment would:
• Repeal § 125-77(H). a citizen-initiated Land Use Ordinance that passed November 8, 2022, which requires a written permit from the Code Enforcement Officer for the disembarkation of persons from cruise ships on, over, or across any property located within the Town of Bar Harbor.
• Amend § 125-69 to allow the land use activity of cruise ship disembarkation subject to compliance with an ordinance governing cruise ship reservation and passenger disembarkation to be enacted by the Council and codified as Chapter 50.
• Amend § 125-109 to define cruise ship disembarkation.
The most concerning part of this is wondering what “redevelop” means for that property. That is indeed a lovely old building, why not use it where it is? I fear it will be for another big, ugly, “B and B” like the one that he has built downtown.
What a remarkable financial recovery the St Germains seem to have made! Despite owning several restaurants, several rental properties, and a share of the 44 room B&B going up on Cottage Street when last we heard from wife NINA she was excusing the un-permitted rental of rooms in her lavish private residence as financially necessary to allow her to afford remaining as a "stay at home mom." Next thing ya know she and her hubby are attempting an expensive move/renovation of the old Bar Harbor Water Company building to a zone permitting more rental rooms. One wonders just how much it was costing her to stay at home? And just how much was she charging for those un-permitted rental rooms?