Bar Harbor dorm amendment tackles workforce-housing squeeze

Laurie Schreiber As Bar Harbor businesses and Acadia National Park prepare for the summer influx of tourists, town planners and other stakeholders are tackling a workforce-housing squeeze.

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By Laurie Schreiber

The town of Bar Harbor is tackling a shortage of affordable workforce housing with proposed changes to its zoning ordinance that would allow employee and workforce dormitories as well as rooming houses.

The goal is to provide more housing stock for employees, and to address overcrowding and safety concerns for individuals housed in a group setting, according to town documents.

At a June 19 planning board hearing on the proposal, Chairman Tom St. Germain said the board has been working on the amendment for three years. St. Germain said the amendment is part of an effort to encourage employers to house their own employees.

“We’ve been working with some of the large employers,” he said.

According to the amendment, employee dormitories may be an accessory use to hotels, motels, hospitals, restaurants and transient accommodations, and other businesses where a building or portion of a building is used for group sleeping accommodations for on-premise employees in one room or a series of rooms. The dormitory may be an attached or stand-alone structure on the same parcel as the principal use, and won’t be required to include parking.

A rooming house is a building or portion thereof in which group sleeping accommodations are provided for more than five but less than 16 people, in one room or a series of rooms. Rooming houses will be required to provide one parking space.

Workforce dorms are buildings or a portion of a building in which group sleeping accommodations are provided for employees of one or more businesses or institutions for more than 16 people in on room or a series of rooms. Workforce dorms will be required to provide one parking space plus one space for every 10 occupants.

None of the uses may be used as vacation rentals and the units may not be sold separately as condominiums.

Hotelier David Witham, owner of Witham Family Hotels, said he has been involved with the amendment’s planning process throughout that time. Witham Family Hotels owns and operates 13 hotel properties along the coast of Maine, including nine in Bar Harbor.

Witham said he views the amendment as a benefit both for his company and for residential neighborhoods where the hotel chain currently owns housing stock to house seasonal employees.

“Our involvement has been to try to get us out of those neighborhoods and get us on our own site,” Witham said. “It will benefit us, but any benefit to us will benefit neighborhoods and communities.”

Witham said his company is also looking to partner with Island Housing Trust to put the hotel chain’s housing stock back on the market if the amendment is voted in.

Island Housing Trust is a nonprofit working to promotes year-round communities by advancing permanent workforce housing on Mount Desert Island.

But there was some pushback from several downtown residents. Workforce dorms and rooming houses in downtown residential districts aren’t appropriate, said Jim Mahoney.

“There’s a lot of pressure from other uses, like vacation rentals,” Mahoney said. “Over time, there’s been a lot of displacement of year-round housing.”

Mahoney urged the town to prioritize year-round residential use in the downtown residential zone.

“Dormitories and rooming houses won’t primarily provide year-round residences,” he said, adding that the proposal will further displace year-round residential use.

Ellen Grover, also of Bar Harbor, said the town’s comprehensive plan prioritizes preservation of residential neighborhoods.

“Boarding houses don’t belong in residential neighborhoods,” she said. “The sustainability of the year-round population is really important.”

But Planning Board member Erica Brooks contended that the amendment will free up some housing that is now owned by employers, and encourages dormitory development on employer property rather than taking up housing stock in downtown neighborhoods.

The board approved the amendment, which is expected to go before voters at their Nov. 5 town meeting.

Acadia National Park is also looking at workforce housing issues for its seasonal park employees. Park officials are exploring whether to enter into a public-private partnership to tackle the issue.

Bar Harbor has an acute need for seasonal help, with 3.3 million visitors a year drawn to Acadia National Park and another 124,000 cruise ship passengers. The housing shortage on Mount Desert Island, where Bar Harbor is the hub of activity, is exacerbated by several factors.

There's no development on the national park grounds, including more than 30,000 acres on MDI. There are a large number of seasonal houses, used for a few weeks or months of the year. Many of the seasonal places that were once offered for off-season rentals are now commanding more money on Airbnb, which has some 900 listings on MDI. What few houses are available on the island are unable to handle year-round workers from Jackson Lab, Mount Desert Island Biological Labs, College of the Atlantic and Mount Desert Island Hospital, among other institutions.

At the June 3 meeting of the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider said a possible site for workforce housing has been found that would involve partnering with a private developer to build housing to be shared with the park, with some housing possibly for other seasonal businesses and organizations. However, he said, the National Park Service must first work out the legal and policy issues associated with public-private partnership.

“The National Park Service has never done something like this,” Schneider said. “But Acadia has been selected” as the pilot project for this type of project, he said, adding, “It has the potential to be a win-win.”

At the Bar Harbor Town Council’s April 2 meeting, Planning Director Michele Gagnon said employers struggle to attract and retain workers due to the lack of affordable housing.