'Summer folk' feel backlash for opposing workforce housing in Northeast Harbor

Other news: Another town facing campground application considers development moratorium; Photo challenges South Shore Cove claims

NORTHEAST HARBOR, Dec. 31, 2022 - Some summer residents have rekindled the resentment toward their strong-arm tactics to make their few months of stay as unobtrusive as possible at the expense of the year-round community.

At issue is a petition signed by 205 homeowners - mostly seasonal residents - who oppose six units of proposed workforce housing. The petition was filed with the Planning Board in September even before an official application was submitted for the project.

The matter promises to rock the town in 2023. The fight will be more polarizing than the eight-year battle at Hall Quarry to prevent the restart of the stone-cutting operation there.

You may read the petition here with names and addresses of all the signatories: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wb6lZ_MxAbHi3cfjHbc_zM_CW52vZnsm/view?usp=sharing

At least one signatory has since asked to remove her name, stating she did not read the petition and supports the project.

Other public opposition to the petition surfaced the last several weeks in anticipation of the project landing on the laps of planning board members in early 2023.

“This week, I was dismayed to learn of the opposition to Mount Desert 365's plan to develop new housing on Manchester Road in Northeast Harbor,” wrote Sarah March in the Islander this week.

“The need for more housing on MDI is acute. As an example, recently there was a house for rent year-round in Otter Creek and the owner received over 30 applications,” she wrote.

Sarah March is an endangered species on MDI. She is the mother of two young children and works as a special education assistant. Her skills are in much demand. Yet, more and more of her cohort cannot afford to live here.

“MDI is fortunate to have two wonderful organizations – Mount Desert 365 and Island Housing Trust – now working to address the housing shortage in our community. However, if they are to succeed, we must move beyond the ‘not in my backyard’ response that too often characterizes opposition to housing development.”

Her letter was in response to one Dec. 19 pitting MD365 against the IHT written by Betsy Kelly, one of the petitioners:

“The latter was founded almost 30 years ago and is strongly supported by both the summer and year-round communities. The IHT has worked tirelessly on the issue of affordable housing on Mount Desert and is currently developing six affordable homes, each on a half-acre lot in Jones Marsh. On the other hand, MD365 was founded in 2017 by one wealthy family. It began quietly purchasing real estate in Northeast Harbor and has plans to build several high-density projects that are not supported by the summer or year-round communities.”

The family she referred to was that of billionaire Mitchell Rales, whose activity on the island has been anything but “quiet.” MD365 is a well publicized and known initiative, along with purchase and noisy development of his private mansions.

The properties in question are located in a neighborhood deemed “appropriate for intensive residential development” according to the town’s Land Use Zoning Ordinance, which was amended by voters in 2004 to allow for “workforce housing” and updated in 2015.

IHT’s two major projects are located in isolated locations which do not encroach on existing neighborhoods - Ripples Hills Neighborhood off Beech Hill Road in Somesville and the Jones Marsh neighborhood, which is under construction off Rt. 3 in Bar Harbor.

Although the two non-profits have partnered on smaller projects in the past, they have different missions. IHT is an islandwide initiative and only offers home ownership. MD365 is focused primarily on restoring the year-round community in Northeast Harbor by providing both rental housing and home ownership.

Marla O’Byrne, director of the IHT, said she had no idea why the petitioners compared the two non-profits.

Some are appalled by the ad hominem attack on Rales and this particular paragraph in the petition:

“The MD 365’s plan to create a condominium ownership structure for buyers means residents will own their modular unit but not the land underneath it. Owners will have little incentive to maintain the units and no opportunity for any increase in the value of their property.”

Resident Laura Grier wrote in the Islander, “They think people won't care for their yards because they don't own the land. I have rarely heard a more specious or disingenuous argument. Sounds more like people in huge waterfront estates that don't want to mix with regular folks. Shame. Where can people who work on the island live?”

Some petitioners agreed with Grier and blacked out the paragraph on one of the petitions submitted:

Grier praised the work being done by Rales in the village.

“Are these the same folks who complain about lack of year-round (or even the dwindling summer) businesses?”

Then on Dec.13 there was this exchange on Facebook with specific reference to the “summer folk”:

On Oct. 31 resident Meg Ashur had a change of heart. She wrote she made a mistake of “signing a petition based only on feelings for an individual involved. I did not read it to inform myself of the facts. Please consider this letter as my removal of my name and signature from the above petition.

“I enthusiastically support 365’s plans! Whatever it takes to start building, the sooner the better.”

She stated the location is good for young families, “near the elementary school and library. Attractive, affordable homes that have plenty of trees will blend easily into the neighborhood.”

MD365 stated on its website, “We have acquired residential properties on Neighborhood Road, Manchester Road, and Summit Road, as indicated on the map above in blue.

“In addition to those lots, we have several properties in the Village Commercial (VC) district. In these mixed-use buildings, we plan to offer rental apartments on a year-round basis, perhaps with a limited opportunity for condominium ownership for some of them to support equity investment on a smaller scale than a single-family home. These mixed-use lots – shown in orange on the map – are on Main Street and Old Firehouse Lane.”

The following is the relevant workforce housing section in the ordinance:

6B.11   Lots

3.   Requirements for lots wholly outside the Shoreland Zone

2.   Additional one‑family or two‑family dwellings.  One‑family and two‑family dwellings are allowed in all districts, as indicated in Section 3.4. For each additional one‑family or two‑family dwelling on a lot, all dimensional requirements shall be met separately for each one‑family or two‑family dwelling.

The following was added at town meeting in 2015:

EXCEPTION:

For any existing or new lot that is wholly outside the Shoreland Zone, one accessory residential dwelling unit is allowed per lot without an increase in the minimum lot size requirement.  Accessory residential dwelling units are incidental and subordinate to the principal use or structure and may be no more than 75 percent of the living area of the primary dwelling unit. The accessory residential dwelling shall meet town and state standards for wastewater disposal and the lot on which the accessory residential dwelling is located shall conform to current minimum lot size standards.

ACCESSORY RESIDENTIAL DWELLING UNIT: A dwelling unit either attached to a single-family principal dwelling or located on the same lot and having an independent means of access.

LIVING AREA. The total of all floor areas of a residential structure excluding garage area; basement or attic area, except when these areas are used or intended to be used for human habitation; and other building area, that is not accessible by a stairway or where the floor to ceiling height is less than 5 feet; and area between the outside of exterior walls and the inside of those walls.

The definition of Living Area was amended in 2016 to clarify that decks and patios should not be counted towards living area.

LIVING AREA: The total of all floor areas of a residential structure as measured from the interior walls. The following areas are excluded from living area calculations: garage area; basement or attic area, except when these areas are used or intended to be used for human habitation; other building area that is not accessible by a stairway or where the floor to ceiling height is less than 5 feet; and decks or open patios.

Deja Vu all over again as town reacts to campground plans with moratorium

TREMONT - A developer wants to build a campground, including RVs, in a rural Down East coastal community, and the town suddenly realizes it may not have the necessary ordinances to safe guard its interest.

The select board is now considering a moratorium on such development to give it time to sort out the impact on its natural resources.

Sound familiar?

It is a replay of the two-year battle here when citizens imposed a moratorium in 2021 to stop a 154-site campground with 72 RVs in West Tremont. That was eventually settled out of court when both sides agreed to no more than 45 units, with the remaining 20 acres of land preserved.

The Deer Isle Select Board voted Dec. 22 to have a moratorium drafted, and it’s expected to go before voters in early 2023, the Bangor Daily News reported today. The decision comes after a developer proposed a subdivision of a 48-acre parcel on the to create a new campground.

Deer Isle has a bigger challenge because it has no comprehensive plan and is therefore more exposed to development.

“The concern is there are more [subdivisions] coming, and the town isn’t ready for the scale or density,” Town Manager James Fisher told the BDN. “Right now, we have the standard shoreland zoning and a subdivision ordinance, but the feeling of the Select Board is that those tools are not sufficient.”

Addison and Partners, a group of designers and restaurateurs, approached the town in October about building 12 guest cabins, five tent campsites and a bathhouse on the 48-acre property on Fox Hollow Lane. The property currently is home to a farmhouse, which would host an operations center for the campground and supply seasonal staff housing, and a barn that is planned to host food services.

Increasing the water and septic usage from a single-family home to 17 campsites worried some officials, the BDN reported.

“We just want to make sure what goes in there doesn’t have an adverse environmental impact,” Deer Isle select board member Percy “Joe” Brown said Thursday. “It’s going to be quite an operation, as all subdivisions are.”

Peter Perez, another Select Board member, felt that even if a moratorium is enacted it would not apply to this campground because the developers already had paperwork in with the planning board.

“The worst-case scenario is this one gets through, but we stop the rest of them,” he said.

The moratorium is expected to either go before the voters at a special town meeting early next year or at the annual town meeting in March.  

Historic photo shows South Shore Cove not so unspoiled

NORTHEAST HARBOR - A resident has unearthed a photo taken more than a century ago which challenges the claim that South Shore Cove is unspoiled.

“The photo comes from the Isaac Moore collection in the Northeast Harbor Library's digital collection,” said local artist Christopher Zamore. “I'm guessing from the dating on other photographs in the collection that it was taken around 1903-4.

“Few folks in Northeast Harbor, including the present residents of South Shore Road, seem to realize how changeable and dynamic their waterfront has been,” stated Zamore in an email.

“The cove they recently defended as unspoiled had an earlier history of docks, moorings, and a large boathouse behind the Corning homes on the Head.

“Gilpatrick's Cove would have been unavailable to these families because it served the Rock End Hotel which had a big dock to service their rental rowboats - lovingly described by Samuel Eliot Morison in his oral history of his boyhood stays at the hotel - also in the library's collection. So they developed their own docks and moorings. 

“I've included another photograph from the collection taken from the Lippincott property on South Shore Cove to show boating there.”

Residents of South Shore Cove successfully lobbied the harbor committee in September to halt the installation of 30 moorings in the cove.

Their lawyer Stephen Wagner of the Bangor firm Rudman Winchell argued, “The Cove is the site of historic lobster fishing grounds, fragile eel grass, frequent marine mammal sightings, and sea bird habitat. It has long been treasured by those fortunate enough to live on or near its waters, and the many recreationists that visit it by kayak, paddleboard, or recreational boat.”

“In fact, many current or former shorefront property owners imposed deed restrictions on their properties that prohibit certain shoreline development in an effort to preserve the Cove’s wild character and unfettered views. South Shore Cove is especially rare given the extensive development and use along the surrounding shoreline.”

The residents also hired consultant Gordon Longsworth, who is director of the GiS Lab at College of the Atlantic, to depict the cove with satellite images.

The yacht club known as the Fleet wanted to add 30 moorings to the four in South Shore Cove approved by the harbor master in 2021.

That’s when the South Shore Cove waterfront residents hired Wagner. The yacht club’s manager said in September it was unfortunate how quickly the homeowners had “lawyered up.”

Zamore’s paintings frequently used Northeast Harbor as a backdrop, such as this one of Clifton Dock. Others are available to view on his website.