Bar Harbor OKs hearing on construction halt

BAR HARBOR – An animated crowd of more than 115 residents burst into sustained applause Tuesday night after the town council unanimously voted to hold a public hearing later this month on a proposed 180-day moratorium on residential subdivision construction.

“We’re sick of it,” resident Llew Sullivan said before the meeting began. “Everybody keeps building and building and no one has any say over what happens. We’re sick of the majority … not having control of the town.”

Affordable housing construction would not be impacted by the moratorium. Permits on other subdivisions will not be processed before the coming hearing.

Members of the general public were not allowed to speak during the debate over whether or not to begin procedures to establish the moratorium, but through applause and sometimes audible groans, most made it clear that they supported the break on subdivision construction.

The moratorium would allow the planning board to draft ordinances so they could better decide construction matters and consider what direction the town’s development should take.

“I think the people in Bar Harbor would really like to see a great deal of thought put into the development of the town,” resident Sue Leiter said. “It’s something we should be concerned with throughout Maine. It’s a statewide problem of development.”

Should the moratorium be granted after the Sept. 20 hearing, it would be retroactive to Sept. 6, officials said. The town attorney will attend that hearing.

Ellen Dohmen, planning board chairperson, said that her board has been very busy reading large numbers of applications for “dense collections of condominiums.” The board approved 71 units on 29 lots so far for 2005.

“As chair of [the] planning board, I don’t want to be like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned,” Dohmen said in prepared remarks. “I am asking you … to place a moratorium on certain types of development until we have the tools in place to evaluate these properly.”

The planning board is not anti-development but wants to find a way to make growth consistent with a vision of the town, the chairman said.

Councilors agreed.

“I’ve been sitting in planning board meetings and watching all of this snowball,” councilor Ruth Eveland said, to applause from the crowd.

Town planner Anne Krieg told the council that during the moratorium on development, the town could establish policies or at least consider in more depth issues of density, weekly rentals, housing affordability, parking and wetlands protection. The 1993 comprehensive plan should also be revamped, the planner said.

“Obviously, the policies in that plan were good for 1993,” Krieg said. “They don’t seem to be serving you well now.”

Councilors also heard a request from Lizz Godfroy of Leapin’ Lizards Gallery and Chris Cromwell, who have proposed to construct a commercial art gallery and nonprofit arts center at the Pooler Farm in Town Hill.

The proposed complex, Art Farm, would include performance space, studio space and teaching space.

Councilors moved to have Godfroy and Cromwell circulate a public petition to amend the town’s land use ordinances so the project can move forward.