Courtesy/ Coplon Associates
Seen here are existing facilities.
February 8, 2022
Zoning proposal may help revive Bar Harbor's dormant oceanarium
COURTESY / THE KNOWLES CO.
Bar Harbor is considering a zoning change to allow the nonprofit Oceanarium and Education Center to improve the site of the former Bar Harbor Oceanarium.
A proposed zoning amendment for a marine education and research facility, a longstanding attraction in Bar Harbor, has made it through the Planning Board and Town Council and will go to a public hearing on Feb. 15.
“It’s been a staple of our community forever, so I think this makes sense,” Councilor Joe Minutolo said during a meeting to consider the proposal.
The site, at 1351 State Highway 3 on Bar Harbor’s outskirts, was originally developed as Aqualand in the mid-1960s to exhibit local marine life.
Aqualand operated until the late 1980s, then was purchased in 1990 by David and Audrey Mills.
The Millses had established a smaller oceanarium in 1972 in nearby Southwest Harbor, and used the Bar Harbor site to expand oceanarium operations. The facility, known as the Bar Harbor Oceanarium and sometimes called the Mount Desert Oceanarium, attracted thousands of visitors over the years. The couple closed the oceanarium in 2018, and the property went on the market the following year.
In 2021, the Mills family sold the property to Richard Post. Post and his family have a summer house one town over in Trenton. He’d driven by the oceanarium many times and enjoyed visiting it with his grandchild. When he noticed it was for sale, he looked into buying it with the idea of setting up a nonprofit.
“The whole place is fun for kids,” Post told Mainebiz at the time. “We don’t want that to go to waste.”
Salt marsh and lobster hatchery
Long popular with local residents and visitors, the educational aquarium sits on 19.7 acres between a salt marsh and a salt pond. At the time of purchase, the facility included a gift shop with bathrooms, museum and lobster hatchery buildings, barn, driveway, 78-space parking lot, septic system and a grandfathered mobile home near the marsh. The facility included touch tanks and offered educational programs about lobsters. A third of a mile of trails along the property and a couple of observation towers traverse fields and woods.
Post’s son-in-law, Jeff Cumming, took charge of renovations and management. The site has been renamed the Oceanarium and Education Center.
But all of the buildings needed work, including making it accessible to people with disabilities, replacing roofs and improving buildings and signage. The plan is to add exhibits and activities for “place-based education and conservation,” according to its website still under construction.
Modernization
The adoption of the Bar Harbor land use ordinance in the mid-1980s placed the property in the town's Shoreland Limited Residential District, rendering all existing uses and structures as nonconforming, except for a residential unit, according to the zoning change application.
“This means that no changes to existing buildings and facilities are allowed as such improvements would increase the nonconformity,” the application says. “This includes simple changes such as improving accessibility, bringing structures up to code if work is required outside the current envelope, site improvements, and any other upgrades related to the historic use of the property. The grandfathering of this unique parcel relegates the activities and structures to what was developed in the 1960s.”
The rezoning proposed would allow for facility upgrades and modernizations so that the educational and research mission for which the property was originally developed may continue into the future.
The nonprofit Oceanarium and Education Center’s mission “is to provide educational exhibits and programs for all ages on local ecology, marine biology and research, citizen science, dark skies, fisheries and aquaculture, and STEM education in partnership with Maine schools,” the application says.
Town councilors said they supported the proposed zone change.
“No. 1, I’d like to see that site come back and be used,” said Councilor Matthew Hochman.
The council voted to certify the proposed amendment and scheduled a public hearing for Feb. 15, at 7 p.m., for public comment. The council will then decide whether to sign an order to place the zone change on the warrant for the June 14 town meeting.
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