Industrial solar farm seeks to clear cut 10 acres on Town Hill, prompting concerns, objections

Other news: Sips Cafe to close after 17 years; SWH offers one-day recycling

TOWN HILL, April 9, 2022 - What appeared to be an environmentally propitious installation of the town’s first commercial solar farm has instead unleashed a storm of protest because it requires the clear cutting of 10 acres of forest off Knox Road here.

The news came one month after Hammond Lumber clear cut woods behind its buildings a mile away on Rt. 3, arousing the ire of neighbors and for which the owner has publicly apologized and promised to restore some of the growth.

Among those protesting are two high ranking town officials who own properties abutting the proposed project on a 53-acre parcel on Knox Road acquired March 30 by a Portuguese company which hired a Portland-based consultant to handle the application process.

Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain and Fire Chief Matt Bartlett each testified Wednesday at the Planning Board meeting reviewing the application by Bar Harbor Community Solar LLC, which was first company to test the new solar ordinance enacted by voters last November to allow stand-alone solar developments.

There has been a dramatic increase in industrial solar projects overtaking Maine’s farming and rural land. The Town Hill proposal would be the first such commercial enterprise on MDI, which Bartlett said is an “unintended consequence” of the town’s recently amended zoning code to allow for “stand-alone” solar farms.

The proposed array is owned by a $1.5 billion company based in Portugal. It would provide no jobs, no community ownership and produce power which would be commercialized across five counties served by Versant Power.

“Maine is in the midst of a new era of renewable energy development, spurred by legislation that requires 80% of Maine’s electricity come from renewable resources by 2030 and 100% by 2050,” stated the Maine Aududon Society on its website.

“But with the tremendous opportunities provided by solar and wind energy come potential conflicts with Maine’s wildlife and wildlife habitat. Like any new land use or development, if not thoughtfully sited or operated, new renewable energy development could displace wildlife habitat and otherwise unduly impact Maine’s natural resources.”

“I do not see how this project is compatible with the surrounding areas and residential neighborhoods, nor do I see how this site is appropriate for this degree of intensive alteration,” wrote Chamberlain in a letter April 3 to the board in which she said she was acting as a private citizen and not in her official role. “While the solar use overall may not be considered an intensive use, the clearing of the trees, the destruction of the land, and the habitat loss is intensive in my opinion. 

“This particular site has eight wetlands totaling approximately 20 acres, two vernal pools, and one stream. Even if I had no knowledge of Bar Harbor’s land use ordinance requirements, common sense would tell me that a mostly forested site with multiple protected environmental resources is not the appropriate piece of land to clear of vegetation and cover with 14 acres of solar panels.”

Since the letter was written, the company has reduced the coverage to 10 acres.

“Wouldn’t solar farms be better suited for sites that are undevelopable for housing, or areas of land that are already cleared, or land that isn’t considered sensitive?”

A Climate to Thrive, the renewable energy non-profit on MDI, sites its arrays on rooftops and “disturbed” land such as the landfill in Tremont and soon-to-be array at Higgins Pit.

Chamberlain stated the applicant did not include a 250-foot buffer from various wet sections of the property which is in a shoreland zone. The company said it would come back with revisions. How much that would reduce the 10-acre array remains to be determined. The project now is forecast to produce 2 megawatts of power.

The applicant is seeking several waivers from standards such as clearing and vegetation requirements which Chamberlain stated that the board lacks the authority to grant. She also pointed out multiple areas where the company has failed to provide required information.

You may read her entire letter here.

Town Hill is often misunderstood as a bypass on Rt. 3, with Hammond Lumber, Mother’s Kitchen, Salisbury Farm, Town Hill Market, and Mainely Meats BBQ as defining its presence. But a short drive up Knox Road or Crooked Drive will reveal verdant meadows and woods marking its special place on MDI.

This looms as the biggest test for this new planning board, which added five members since last summer, especially in light of the code enforcement officer opposing the application. The pro-development members did not show their cards in such an early stage of the process, although Joe Cough did object to adding the Conservation Commission in the discussion.

You may watch the entire board meeting here. The solar array presentation starts at Minute 51.

Knox Road neighbor Michael Good, a professional naturalist, said, “I am concerned about the role Bar Harbor planning board is playing in allowing the corporate invasion of rural Town Hill. Joe Cough has an inflated perspective on the planning board’s jurisdiction by suggesting that they keep this project as presented, on the books with a site plan application, when it should have been tabled and the applicant sent back to the drawing board to reapply for town taxpayer review. It was abundantly clear that BioResearch Institute (BRI) has not looked into any State regulation or local ordinances very deeply nor do they take the Maine Department of Environmental Protection State regulations seriously.”

BRI is the consultant handling the application.

There will be at least two more meetings, and hearings, on what is expected to be a drawn-out affair.

Bartlett urged the board to hire an independent engineer to assess the potential runoff. His wife Lori asked whether an arborist should be engaged.

“I feel like this is a very misuse of this land,” Bartlett said. “We've heard many times of our housing needs and we're going to be taking 15 acres or now 10 acres of land that can be used for other things or maybe even as it is.

“We were told that there's winners and losers. I think some of those comments just show the callousness of how they feel about the valuable land we have in Bar Harbor, that it's not really being used in the best interest of what is best for Bar Harbor.

David Evers, BRI executive director and chief scientist, made that comment in a meeting March 8 with neighbors. You may view the entire meeting here. Evers’s remarks come at 1:30 into the meeting.

He wrote in an email that “winners and losers” referred to changes of wildlife after the solar array is installed.

“For example, the loss of secondary forest that may contain habitat for red-backed voles and pileated woodpeckers will be replaced by herbaceous (non-woody) vegetation around the boundaries of a solar array that are now good habitat for edge species such as meadow voles and white-throated sparrows. 

“Some of the winners may even be surprising. For example, as small mammal density may be greater along the buffer of a solar array vs a secondary forest winners could therefore be certain raptors that would respond to better forage habitat because of the increase in prey (e.g., broad-winged hawk and barred owl) – even though their breeding opportunities would need to shift to other areas.

“The question in my mind that needs to be tracked is - Will species of greatest conservation need be more adversely impacted or benefited from a solar array placement in a specific location?  If there is a threatened or endangered species at a site (such as an upland sandpiper or grasshopper sparrow in an open habitat), then it is important that that species does not become one of the ‘losers’ in changes brought on by solar development.”

Michael Good, who has tracked species in the area for decades, said, “His statement comes across as crass and insensitive and to talk about the possibility of a threatened or endangered species at a site (such as an upland sandpiper or grasshopper sparrow in an open habitat) shows he is just saying words that have no meaning.  Both of these species would never be found in the forested habitat and system they want to destroy.”

Good operates Downeast Nature Tours https://www.downeastnaturetours.com/.

Chamberlain wrote, “Land on MDI is limited and opportunities for residential development are scarce. We desperately need housing on the island and to take a vacant property, which could be utilized for housing in some capacity, and strip it of as much vegetation as possible to install acres of solar, feels irresponsible,”

Steven Katona, former president of the College of the Atlantic, said he fears there will be a backlash against the good works being done on MDI by A Climate to Thrive and others to install much needed alternative energy solutions without compromising habitats.

MDI has no commercial solar farms. Its arrays at the landfill in Tremont, Southwest Harbor, MDI High School and soon-to-be Higgins Pit in Bar Harbor takes advantage of “disturbed land” and required no significant alteration.

Sips Cafe to close after 17 years

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, April 9, 2022 - “This island is on a slippery slope and I’m just the tip of the iceberg,” said Jennifer Worcester, owner of Sips Cafe, which will end its 17-year run as the Quietside’s “Cheers” next week with a bang.

The village has never fully recovered from the closing of Sawyer’s Market three years ago. Stacie Murphy Skinner, one of 125 commenters on Sips’s Facebook page, wrote, “No! First Sawyer’s and now Sips? Our visits ‘home’ to Maine aren’t going to be the same. Thank you for all the delicious food and memories!”

Worcester said she recently lost two chefs and that hiring is a huge problem on the island and “not just for restaurants.”

“In February 2006 we sat in an empty space on Clark Point Rd and had a vision,” the restaurant posted on its FB page. “A vision to open a restaurant to where a community could feed their heart and soul year round. A place that guests could come in out of the cold, meet friends, interview candidates, laugh, sing, and above all, create memories. But every story has a final chapter.

“On April 15 we are celebrating our final day. We have been proud to be your ‘Cheers’ of Southwest Harbor and thank you for supporting and embracing our vision. Sips 2.0 will remain open, providing wraps, snacks, salads, frozen entrees and other goods. Join us for our fond farewell with Brian Kupiec & friends returning to the Sips stage starting at 6pm on Friday April 15th. Thank you for all the memories.”

Select member Carolyn Ball, wrote, “We are so sad but know we will see you, Jen, around town and the other great employees left.”

Tremont appeals aboard airs citizens objections to campground

TREMONT - Waterfront views from Acadia Wilderness Lodge? Fresh eggs from its own chicken coup? Moose sighting?

Wow. Must be quite a place.

At least one member of the Appeals Board asked Kenya Hopkins Thursday how they could possibly offer waterfront views from their site off Tremont Road, she replied that there is a ridge from which they could do that.

Except that this is the view offered on its web site:

Can anyone in Tremont identify this vantage point?

Larger-than-life claims have never been a problem for the Hopkinses in their pursuit to build a micro Disney World in rural Tremont.

Now the appeals board has the job to determine whether any of their claims were incompatible with the local land-use ordinance.

Attorney Amy Tchao certainly believes so. She represents the Concerned Residents of Tremont who are appealing the Planning Board decision Nov. 1 to grant AWL a permit. Thursday she outlined eight objections:

1. The Planning Board improperly delegated its authority to the code enforcement officer to determine that the AWL 2b (Part 2 of project) proposal satisfied the Site Plan Review approval standards.

2. The Planning Board improperly delegated to AWL the authority to determine the location of the northerly boundary of the Project site following the Planning Board’s approval and failed to require a 50’ buffer along that Project site boundary.

1. AWL failed to demonstrate that the AWL 2b proposal will maintain “safe and healthful” conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists on Route 102 pursuant to Article VIII(E)(1)(a) of the Town’s Land Use Ordinance.

2. AWL failed to demonstrate that the AWL 2b proposal provides an adequate water supply to the Property.

3. The Planning Board failed to apply the applicable version of the LUO to the AWL 2b proposal.

4. The Planning Board failed to adequately consider AWL’s entire proposal for the AWL 2b project.

5. The Planning Board failed to make a determination that the AWL 2b proposal is a “light commercial” activity that is consistent with the purposes of, and uses allowed within, the Town’s Residential-Business Zone (“R-BZ”).

6. The Planning Board’s accelerated approval process violated fundamental tenets of due process.

Was it one or two campgrounds, Tchao wanted to know? Certainly on its website Acadia Wilderness Lodge appears as one entity, making no distinction between Acadia Wilderness Lodge and AW Village. Should a separate application have been required to be filed in front of the planning board?

Appeals member Michael Hays said, “It is maintained the Acadia wilderness Village is a totally separate entity and has no real relationship with Acadia Wilderness Lodge and yet when the plans were submitted for what is now Acadia wilderness village, it was actually called Acadia Wilderness Lodge, and that's how it's referred to. And when I go and I look for Acadia Wilderness Village I am delivered to Acadia wilderness lodges website and I'm told that's where I make reservations. And that's where I check in.

“You know, there's there's a phrase I really like it's a distinction without a difference. And I've got to tell you flat out this is one of those things. It's a nice fiction, but I don't think I could maintain it with a straight face as as you do. So, I read it's not separate financially, administratively, managerially, physically. How is it how is it not part of Acadia Wilderness Lodge?

The lawyer for AWL accused Hays of indulging in conspiracy theories.

“Both Acadia Wilderness village and Acadia Wilderness Lodge, unlike some people who have a conspiracy theory saying we've tried to create this separate and there's a big legal fiction. I don't agree.

“I think what happened as a practical matter and I just want the history to be reflected accurately because there's a lot of historical revisionism that goes on in our nation, and I don't like and I just want to be clear with the facts.

It will be interesting to see how a Superior Court judge will react to that kind of banter.

Then there is the final matter of whether the Hopkinses will be able to deliver on their promises to the high-end customer who tends to be discriminating.

AWL requires a three-night minimum. It then charges a “short-stay fee” of $175 for any stay under one week.

Here is what a room will cost for Memorial Day weekend, sans the various upsells:

Recycling Returns to Southwest Harbor, Saturday, April 16

Cardboard, cans, will be collected and recycled at no charge

SOUTHWEST HARBOR - Southwest Harbor Select Board candidate James Vallette announced that, after a two-year absence, recycling in this small coastal town will restart, at least for one morning, Saturday, April 16.

Clean metal cans and flattened cardboard will be accepted at the Goog’s Pond parking lot just above the town office and American Legion Hall.  The event begins at 8 a.m. and ends at noon. 

Jim Vallette (one wearing sunglasses)

A group in support of this initiative has formed on Facebook through a new “Southwest Harbor Recycling Club.” More than 50 persons have signed up or otherwise supported this effort so far. More volunteers and donations are welcome, Vallette said.

Vallette and team will bring cardboard to ND Paper in Old Town and cans to AIM Recycling in Bangor, facilities that do not charge processing fees. SWH residents currently pay $62.50 per ton for these wastes to be landfilled in Old Town or burned in Orrington. Since May 2020, when the Coastal Resources recycling facility in Hampden closed, there has been no recycling at all in Southwest Harbor.  

Waste management issues motivated Vallette to run for Select Board. in January 2021, he exposed alarming past business practices of a potential buyer of the closed Hampden facility, after it was announced by the Municipal Review Committee (MRC). The town is under contract with the MRC until 2038 for the disposal of its wastes. In October 2021, Southwest Harbor’s Select Board nominated Vallette to run for the MRC board, and he received the support of every town select board and council on MDI and nearby. 

Important discussions between towns and the MRC are underway; also, SWH’s contract with the local transfer station is up for renewal in 2024. Vallette believes the voters of Southwest Harbor share his desire to work with the transfer station and find ways to get recycling up and running. He looks to the Unity Regional Recycling Center, which has been operating since 1991, as a model.  

“Unity shows how recycling can be done on MDI,” said Vallette.  “They separate waste at the source into separate bins, and it costs residents almost nothing. Instead, we have no recycling and taxpayers in Southwest Harbor pay more than almost any other town in Maine. I hope our event on April 16 will show local demand and restart our tradition of recycling.” Jim Vallette may be reached at info@jimvallette.com , 412-3015. Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/recycleswh

Council goes all-in on town manager’s kid-glove response to cruise ships

BAR HARBOR - The Town Council has circled the wagons and going full tilt to make Charlie Sidman the one wearing the black hat.

In the process, it may end up costing taxpayers dearly.

Here’s how and why:

At its Tuesday meeting, member Jill Goldthwait made a passionate defense of Town Manager Kevin Sutherland’s refusal to give Sidman documents to determine whether the town actually has “contracts” with the cruise ship industry, as Sutherland has so stated.

The documents Sidman is seeking are public records, if they indeed exist. Maine’s Freedom of Access Act is pretty clear about that.

Sidman said he will pursue the matter with the state attorney general’s office next week in light of Sutherland’s failure to respond.

What Goldthwait and the rest of the council doesn’t understand, nor appreciate, is that it doesn’t matter whether an ordinance to cap cruise ship visits originates from the council or a citizens group. The town of Bar Harbor is still the party responsible and liable for its actions.

Charlie Sidman is an experienced “early stage” investor. He knows how to perform due diligence. The QSJ assumes he doesn’t like uncalculated risk. He wants all available data if he is to pursue the petition to cap daily cruise ship visits to 1,000 persons.

He is actually performing an important public service, on his own dime.

Not knowing the paper trail of documents cruise ships must sign to reserve dates is a risk. Sidman has hired a Portland lawyer at his own expense. He’s even volunteered to come into the town office building to help review and sort the documents.

Yet, two months later, Sutherland is still not cooperating, prompting Sidman to fire off an angry email to him and the council in which he stated:

“I have asked for the complete and detailed roster of “accepted” ships, by name, date of visit, etc., for the full and indefinite future, so that we can all agree on a defined status quo ante should the Initiative be passed by Town voters. 

“Unfortunately, what you have provided in incomplete form, plus what I have been able to gather from public sources, are not consistent or in agreement.  You have stated repeatedly and definitively that no new bookings have been ‘accepted’ by Bar Harbor since a Town Council decision in mid-2021.  In contrast, however, multiple listings of which I am in possession show additional ships and visits being booked to visit Bar Harbor continuously and newly appearing even between what you provided me on 3/6 and what was publicly listed on the internet as of 4/2 of this year.  Your summarized total numbers appear to be off as well.  In other words, either you are being incompletely or misinformed, or someone in Bar Harbor officialdom is not telling the truth.  If we have to invoke State assistance in order to establish the facts, so be it.  The data and evidence are all there and recorded digitally.”

You may read the entire email here.

Without mentioning Sidman by name, Goldthwait gave an overly soppy soliloquy playing to the Zoom cameras to tell the town manager “we have your back.”

“The language of that email was shocking to me and it was not because it was profane or anything. In fact, it was kind of overly polite.

“But the insinuations in that email about a town employee was unnecessarily insulting. And I just felt like how can I read an email like this and, and not do something even if it's only to speak to it? And so because I don't know what else to do, that's what I'm doing tonight.

“Our managers perfectly capable of defending himself and I just feel like he should know. And the rest of our staff should know that we have your backs. Not that we expect you to do anything knuckle headed. But assuming you are performing the way you always do, and the way you have in a very challenging three months. I think it is patently unfair that a citizen of this community should address you in that way.”

Chairman Jeff Dobbs piled on, “I've been advised before to consider the source.”

Dobbs and Goldthwait teamed up to cast aspersions on a citizen petitioning to do a job they failed at. Freeze frame that on Zoom.

Kevin Sutherland is a seasoned veteran of local politics, having served in Saco and leaving there with two pending lawsuits in his name.

He makes former town manager Cornell Knight seem like a fountain of transparency.

His first act as Bar Harbor town manager was to hire a maritime lawyer and then huddle in a secret council meeting.

He doesn’t answer email questions for details on issues. He has blocked direct access to some department heads like the public works director and fire chief.

He insists on invoking the letter of the FOAA law. When the QSJ asked for his emails for the first two months of 2022, Sutherland wanted me to pay $240. Cornell Knight never sought such cash payments.

Deputy Attorney General Brenda Kielty has intervened on my behalf and has ordered Sutherland to produce a more reasonable response.

But most importantly, at Sutherland’s intervention, the council has become decidedly meek and wan on the issue of capping cruise ship visits.

All the bluster last year from members Joe Minutolo, Goldthwait and Val Peacock have faded into subdued and anodyne acceptance. Only Gary Friedmann has kept the flame lit, although he endorsed Goldthwait’s indictment of Sidman Tuesday.

Where is the subcommittee of Sutherland, Goldthwait and member Val Peacock set up to plot a new cruise ship strategy? Where was Goldthwait’s report on that? Sutherland, as usual, did not respond to an email asking about that subcommittee.

The 2021-22 version of the Bar Harbor Town Council will be known for its epic failure to address the town’s single, biggest challenge, decades in the making. The council has chosen to follow the lead of a new town manager who has not experienced a single season of full tourism in Bar Harbor.

Only a year ago, 66 percent of respondents in a town-wide survey said the cruise ship industry creates a negative image for Bar Harbor.

The Town Council is now proactively working against the one person who is stepping up to rally the citizenry against this infringement on the quality of life of its residents. Goldthwait is more concerned with impolite emails than with this serious challenge. Worse, she is arming the industry with talking points.

This tragedy is shakespearian in its scale.