Is SWH's petition an expression of no confidence in town boards a la Bar Harbor?
Meetings today and tomorrow will signal how local officialdom sees its future
SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Sept. 2, 2025 - Is this town having its cruise ship moment?
Two town boards facing significant pressures from an insider and and a New York investor against the expressed interest of citizens have make-or-break meetings this week.
Will they copy Bar Harbor Town Council’s playbook when it ignored the warnings of a town-wide survey of displeasure with cruise ship visitations in July 2021 and began to placate the industry?
It starts today at 4 when the Planning Board conducts a pro forma site visit of property abutting the abandoned landfill where the town’s Mr. Insider, Lee Worcester, is applying to build 12 residential lots next to his abandoned landfill which has DEP-documented contamination of nearby wells.
The board then will reconvene to consider Worcester’s application which has been a hot mess of procedural errors and conflicts involving an applicant who sits on the Planning Board itself, the town’s sewer and water board, the abutting Acadia National Park’s advisory commission and the state’s Drinking Water Commission, which enforces the Rules Relating to Drinking Water for public water systems.
Worcester is proposing to provide town water to the 12 lots which would involve the water board of which he is chair.
The site visit itself is a make-do for a failed attempt in July when the board could not muster a quorum. It was rescheduled but only after it was pointed out by former select board member Jim Vallette.
The acting chair has shown extraordinary deference to the applicant even though he recused himself.
At a tumultuous meeting on Aug. 19, the acting chair sought out Worcester’s advice on how to proceed in a private meeting with the code officer.
The board also failed to consider that the day before, on Aug. 18, the Worcesters transferred two lots previously owned by EMR, the transfer station operated by Lee Worcester, to Worcester Associates and family members whom, some say, have no ability to pay if sued for liability caused by the toxic soils next to the landfill.
Vallette, the town’s representative to Acadia Disposal District, stated in an email suggesting the deed transfers were done to inoculate the Worcesters from liability by moving it from a profitable entity to one virtually insolvent.
Lee Worcester did not respond to a text seeking comment on this question.
“The attached deed transfers occurred the day before the public hearing. They were not mentioned by the board, the applicant, or CEO, nor posted online in the public record,” Vallette told the select board Aug. 26 during which he entered into the public record his 17-page account of the 90-year history of the landfill.
“It is interesting that the land where the leachate flows along the subdivision and is now Worcester Associates rather than EMR,” he stated in an email.
Vallette was one of 124 signatories to a citizens petition requiring soil testing before a permit is issued for any land uses within a half mile of a site listed as “uncontrolled” by the state. Only 102 signatures were required for the petition to be placed on the November ballot.
He has pointed out a section in the land-use code which deals with soil testing specifically:
“All land uses shall be located on soils in or upon which the proposed uses or structure can be established or maintained without causing adverse environmental impacts, including severe erosion, mass soil movement, improper drainage, and water pollution, whether during or after construction.”
The Planning Board has yet to discuss this section.
The situation is a copy cat of how Bar Harbor citizens who lost confidence that their interest was represented by the local council and boards voted overwhelmingly Nov. 8, 2022 to cap cruise ship visitation at 1,000 a day.
The second meeting on Wednesday at 6:30 before the appeals board pits an angry neighborhood against the singular interest of a New York investor whom neighbors say is building a house which exceeds space allowed by code.
It didn’t help him that the code officer apparently failed to inform all abutters and that he issued permits without visiting the site. Then there was the question left unsettled on what decisions required the engagement of the full Planning Board as opposed to just the code officer.
Disaffected citizens using their ballot power to take local governance into their own hands has become commonplace in Bar Harbor. Will Southwest Harbor follow suit?
The town has a long history of dealing with the political detritus emanating from EMR’s facilities. Vallette was instrumental in defeating a proposal for EMR to house a transfer facility for the region’s household hazardous waste. He also forced amendments to its new contract with the town to allow more flexibility for recycling.
He and the Acadia District are now seeking to use the $360,000 federal grant originally intended for transferring the hazardous waste to remediate the soil at EMR’s landfill.
The following comments are somewhat different than what I wrote only because I kept running into Lincoln's PLEASE TYPE A SHORTER COMMENT. so I broke up my long comment and edited it somewhat and sent it in several comments to get around the Please type a shorter comment . Please try to follow what I have tried to write. It's in sections. But remember that nothing works without enforcement.
This is a quote from the article I just read.
"The double whammy in two days this next week calls out what many on the island have known for decades - that Southwest Harbor has the weakest zoning code and enforcement. Some have said the town essentially has no zoning. Indeed, most of the town outside of the downtown has no distinction between residential and commercial uses. “
Whomever wrote that doesn’t have a clue. That SWH has the weakest zoning code and enforcement? WOW, that’s quite an indictment of our LUO and shows remarkable cluelessness! It’s NOT ZONING so don’t call it that! We do have zones but they are regulated by the PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.
Lincoln, I tried to drum that into you several times. Do you still not get it? Zones yes, but no zoning!
Now if enforcement is an issue then don’t blame it on the LUO. I’d love to know who said that SWH has essentially no zoning. Correct, we don’t have zoning, just zones, big difference!
There is no distinction between residential and commercial. That’s true and was a prime directive of 7 of us in 1986-87 when we didn’t lose sight of the history of SWH that was, and still is, a mix. We allowed the mix to continue.
So please don’t knock a very well written LUO that protects each and every owner of property in SWH if, and it’s a big IF, the regulations are followed.
Last thing if I may comment on the Zoom I listened to and watched last week.
The appeals board has the language of the LUO to do their jobs. It’s clear and straightforward. You are the local rule. So do it and don’t let lawyers run you ragged. Does 72 CPR meet the four provisions needed to get an appeal? You, the appeals board have to enforce the LUO’s language and the permitting process and follow those provisions. That second permit didn’t meet the LUO! I believe that you have no choice but to deny the permit in question. Simple home rule and knowing the LUO cold! And your own ordinance as well. Everything you need is there.
With concern, Dalen Mills