BAR HARBOR – Voters will be asked Tuesday to endorse a dozen changes to the town’s Land Use Ordinance aimed at streamlining the application process and amending the rules for downtown development.

The Town Council, Planning Board and Warrant Committee have endorsed the changes after a series of meetings and public hearings.

The town charter allows the council, as the town’s legislative body, to change all local ordinances except for land use.

The ballot is 18 pages long, which includes explanations for all proposed changes.

A special town meeting will be called to order at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, in the auditorium at the Municipal Building on Cottage Street.

Once a moderator is elected, secret balloting will be held until 8 p.m. Voters also have six state referendum questions to decide.

Town Planning Director Anne Krieg described most of the changes to the Land Use Ordinance as minor. A couple of amendments simply clarify the language of some parts of the ordinance.

None of the changes was controversial. The closest vote was a 8-6 decision by the Warrant Committee on the proposal to no longer take into consideration whether someone is current on their property taxes before issuing site plan approval.

Other proposed changes would:

. Create two downtown business districts, with the major differences being setback limits, lot coverage and building size and design limits.

. Strengthen and clarify rules that prohibit continued nonconforming uses once a structure is razed. The Planning Board wanted this change to prevent developers from converting a parking lot into a hotel because of grandfathered lot coverage allowances.

. Clarify language to make clear that the Board of Appeals cannot accept any testimony or information that was not included in the original project presentation before the Planning Board.

. Exempt “noncommercial” gardens from the definition of agricultural activities and establishing three separate agriculture subgroups with their own rules and limits: avocation, commercial and homestead.

. Allow subdivision developers to construct temporary roads to accommodate survey crews and on-site work required as part of the initial subdivision applications.

. Exempt garden structures such as trellises and raised flower beds, as well as stone walls, from setback requirements and exempt regulation-sized driveways and sidewalks when calculating lot coverage.