Last meeting by current Bar Harbor Town Council was one for the Ages

BAR HARBOR, May 21, 2023 - Even for a Town Council with a loose ethical canon, the behavior by one member at last Tuesday’s final meeting of the current body was a bridge too far.

It was the last meeting for Jill Goldthwait, and perhaps chair Val Peacock, who did not attend, and Erin Cough. Peacock and Cough are seeking re-election, while Goldthwait is not.

Cough, unapologetic acolyte of the local business interests, attempted an end run around the town’s own Planning Department on behalf of a real estate agent who is not even a resident. She caught everyone by surprise by inserting an item on the agenda without prior public notice to waive the town’s fire code on behalf of vacation rental owners of “historic” homes.

In November 2021, voters overwhelmingly approved, 1,260 to 840, an ordinance capping vacation rentals which had exceeded 20 percent of the housing stock and to bring them up to code, including a requirement that windows be large enough for egress during a fire.

At the request of The Knowles Company, a real estate broker based in Northeast Harbor, Cough proposed a moratorium on enforcement of the code for historic homes beyond the May 31 deadline.

“I have been contacted by the Knowles Agency regarding the inspection of some of their short-term rentals that are historic homes. These homes represent a signature architectural period in Bar Harbor's history and need a special exception for certain modern standards. Several issues have been raised, including life safety standards and an almost hostile attitude toward these homeowners by Town Inspectors that need more time to investigate. The federal government enacted laws to protect these significant homes and instructed each state to create a Historic Preservation Office to address issues like these. These homes are not like everyone else, as our Code Enforcement Department stated, and should be addressed differently.

“I have contacted the Maine Historic Preservation Office to find an equitable solution and am waiting for their response. With this being the last meeting in May and there not being another Town Council meeting until late June, the time for the inspection would have passed. I am asking for these homes, ones listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and/or our Historic Property list, to be exempt for 6 months from the expiration of their STR license while the Council works with the State Historic Preservation Office to find a solution and conduct the proper public hearing process. I would like to amend our Council agenda and include this topic for discussion.”

That brought an unusually sharp response by the normally equanimous code enforcement officer, Angie Chamberlain, who said, “I'll be quite honest, this is disheartening to hear at the 10th or 11th hour.

“We’ve worked really hard this year to make this as smooth a transition as possible. We sent notices to people in December of 2021 telling them that this was going to happen. We sent reminder notices again in August of 2022 and said you have to pass your inspection by May 31 or else.

“So I feel like we've made really good faith efforts to do the right thing to educate people to inform them above and beyond what is even necessary.

“And at the end of the day, this is about protecting the health, safety and welfare of the occupants. I mean, no matter what the outside of the house looks like, that’s what it boils down to. If something happens and someone dies, are we okay with that because the house was historic?”

In response, Chamberlain wrote this memo.

Chamberlain was not the only senior town employee to state reservations about special interest requests before the town council Tuesday night.

Police Chief Jim Willis said he was not comfortable with recommending a request from developers of the hotel at 77 Cottage Street to designate the sidewalk as a “loading zone” so guests may check in. Officials have said there could be as many as four paid meters in that spot to generate much needed revenue for the town.

Willis said his deputy, Capt. David Kerns, who has been on the force for 24 years, could not remember the last time the department fielded such a request. Willis said the town has no guidelines for him to act upon.

The 44-room hotel is owned in part by former Planning Board chairman Tom St. Germain and former council member Stephen Coston. It will be up to the new Council to decide next steps.

Another request emerged Tuesday from Versant Power for easements to erect poles on a town parking lot so that the new hotel would be adequately powered, according to Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt.

All these items are typical of a Planning Board review of “completed” applications by developers, except St. Germain and Coston applied for a “bed and breakfast” permit allowing them to skip Planning Board review with only a design review.

The “bed and breakfast” construct was the product of a previous Planning Board under St. Germain as chair even though the town counsel at the time stated that such designations do not apply to hotels.

Erin Cough has been a big supporter of the hotel project even though she is the executive director of the Bar Harbor Historic Society of which St. Germain is a board member.

Not only has she not recused herself but on Tuesday night she even appeared to be leading the witness and coaching Nina St. Germain on what questions to raise. View at 1:45:28 into the meeting. https://server2.rtgsecure.com/vod/_definst_/mp4:bar_harbor_me/2023-05-16_3756943_t.mp4/playlist.m3u8?wowzaplaystart=0

An entire generation of Bar Harbor residents have watched insiders and special interests turn the town into a virtual monopoly board with 40 zoning districts. Citizens have resorted to lawsuits against the town and petitions for ballot initiatives in order to protect themselves.

The email request Tuesday from Keri Hayes of The Knowles Company came with a warning about legal consequences if she did not get her way.

“What message are we sending to visitors to Mount Desert Island if they hear weeks, or even days, before their arrival for a long-planned vacation that the home they have been looking forward to staying in is no longer an option?” wrote Hayes in her email to the council citing two owners who appear unable to meet the fire code by the May 31 deadline.

“We fear that the town is setting itself up for lawsuits and bad publicity that will undo so much of the work that has been done in the past decade to attract visitors to this area. While we fully support the town's efforts to ensure safety to our visitors as well as efforts to increase and encourage year-round housing for area residents, the Town's current actions with these two homeowners in particular accomplish neither goal.”

The QSJ sent Hayes an email at her business address but got no response. I wanted to ask what she meant by “setting itself up for lawsuits?” I wanted to ask whether her client was willing to take the risk of renting out a home which was not up to code. (The town certainly wasn’t willing.) I wanted to ask whether Knowles informed the tenants in advance that the home was not in compliance.

Hayes is the latest member of the local real estate industry trying to stifle efforts to curb vacation rentals not only in Bar Harbor, but in other towns on the island as well.

Mount Desert Select Board pulled a proposed short-term rental ordinance from the recent town meeting after fierce criticism from Katrina Carter, who runs a large summer rental business. (Others, including the QSJ, questioned the efficacy of the proposal.)

Bar Harbor real estate agent Erica Brooks, a former Planning Board member who was not reappointed, sued the town shortly after the citizens petition was overwhelmingly approved Nov. 2, 2021, to cap vacation rentals and to mandate safety regulations.

A Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the town last month, but Brooks said she is appealing. St. Germain and Joseph Cough, husband of Erin, both own vacation rentals but still voted as Planning Board members against the ordinance, but were not able to gain the majority need to require a supermajority vote at the referendum. St. Germain blocked member Ruth Eveland from voting remotely. She said publicly later she would have voted in favor of the ordinance to break the 2-2 tie.

“While these changes are likely to impact many of the historic Bar Harbor homes that we represent in the future, our main concern currently is for Sally Aron’s home, Bagatelle, at 75 Eden Street,” Hayes wrote.

“If Sally can’t get a permit for this summer, she will lose her permit permanently and will lose a significant sum in rental income for this season. Many of our tenants with leases in hand will not be able to find homes large enough to house their groups or may need to lease large homes in other towns that charge thousands of dollars more.”

“These events will almost definitely force Sally to sell this home that has been in her family for over 40 years. A sale of this property would not allow a new owner to rent either and would likely result in someone buying the home and occupying it as their summer home, sitting fallow for the rest of the year. This is not a home that would go back into circulation to house a local family,” Hayes wrote.

“Our understanding of the issues at Sally’s house are that she has a bannister that is not high enough and windows in three bedrooms that don’t meet the new egress rules. Sally has been trying for over a year to find a contractor who is able to make the changes but has been unable to do so while maintaining the historical integrity of the property. In some cases, this is an issue of contractors being stretched too thin; others have told her that they won’t take the job because of the damage it will do to a historic home.”

“Sally is willing to keep trying but she has run out of time for this year. She has renters due to arrive on June 3. She has taken the house off the rentals market for the fall (a move that will limit any further earnings) but is searching for a way to fulfill her rental agreements for June, July and August. She was hanging her hopes on getting an extension in a meeting with Angie Chamberlain on Friday but she was denied. Angie told her that she couldn’t make an exception for one person without doing it for everyone.”

“We appreciate the steps that Erin Cough has been willing to take, reaching out to the state historic preservation office on Sally’s behalf. We also appreciate the Council’s willingness to revisit this on an upcoming agenda. Unfortunately, these things will likely take time that Sally and The Knowles Company don’t have.”

Chamberlain told the council Tuesday, “I don't want to talk about specific people but the email we got this afternoon … this person failed in January of 2022. We are 17 months later, and nothing has happened. That's not on us.”

Fire Chief Matt Bartlett said historic homes may install a sprinkler system as an alternative to replacing the windows.

Thinning out the inventory of short-term vacation rentals was a stated goal of the 2021 ordinance. The town would like the category to fall below 10 percent of the housing stock.

Erin Cough replied to a question from the QSJ about whether she was reacting to a lone email, stating, “While there may be only one email from one group, but it does not mean that is the only way I am contacted. I have had conversations in person and over the phone with residents about changes to their historic homes for several reasons. None of those am I required to disclosed. 

Gossip what you will because your blog is just that gossip and conjecture.”