Bar Harbor businesses file suit over limits on cruise ship visitors
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
A cruise ship anchored off the Bar Harbor shore.
A group of Bar Harbor businesses have filed a lawsuit against the town that seeks to reverse a recently imposed limit on the number of passengers who can disembark from cruise ships.
“The recent passage of the citizens' petition will eliminate cruise ships that have been coming safely to Bar Harbor for decades and will cause great economic losses for all of us,” Kristi Bond, president of a group called Association to Protect and Preserve Local Livelihoods and a small business owner in Bar Harbor, said in a news release.
The association, made up of Bar Harbor business owners, has filed articles of incorporation as a nonprofit.
This past November, Bar Harbor residents, by a vote of 1,780-1,273, backed a citizens initiative to limit the number of people allowed to disembark daily to 1,000. The previous daily cap on disembarking passengers was 5,500.
Cruise ships contribute an estimated $30 million a year to the economy, according to Bond. A limit on passengers who can come into the town “wipes all of that away," she added.
November's vote came after several years of debate over whether the number of cruise ships strains resources or is a welcome source of tourism-related revenue.
The association contends the initiative will crush Bar Harbor's tourism-based economy.
"The initiative could eliminate cruise ships from visiting Bar Harbor permanently,” according to the court filing, which is quoted in the news release. “This will result in the loss of many jobs and permanently harm many small business owners, their employees and families.”
Bar Harbor is Maine’s largest cruise-ship port of call and the number of ships and ship capacity have been going up. Bar Harbor has been booking more than 150 ships in recent years, many carrying several thousand passengers.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments