A Saturday recount revealed that Bar Harbor residents rejected an updated cruise ship disembarkation ordinance by just 65 votes, upholding the original results of the vote reported following the election.
This represents a slight increase in opposition votes over the initial count when it was found that the measure had been rejected by just 63 votes.
In comparing the results, the total of votes in support of the new ordinance increased from 1,713 to 1,714, while the number of votes against the measure rose from 1,776 to 1,779.
[RELATED: Bar Harbor Voters Narrowly Reject New Approach to Cruise Ship Regulation by Just 63 Votes]
The proposal on the ballot would have overturned a 2022 ordinance capping the number of cruise ship passengers allowed to disembark per day at 1,000, replacing it with an updated set of rules that took a markedly different approach to cruise ship regulation.
Had this referendum been approved, the 2022 ordinance would have been replaced by one allowing for more than three times the current cap, with variable monthly limits intended to better reflect the nature of tourism in Maine.
In November of 2022, Bar Harbor voters approved — with 58 percent support — a new law limiting the number of cruise ship passengers allowed to disembark into the town on any given day to 1,000.
Prior to the implementation of this ordinance, Bar Harbor permitted 3,500 passengers to disembark from cruise ships daily, just a few hundred more than the 3,200 proposed under the new rules.
Raising the cap on cruise ship passengers is not, however, the only change that would have been implemented by the proposed ordinance had it been approved by voters.
Currently, cruise ships coordinate with eligible dock owners when coming to Bar Harbor, but under the now-rejected ordinance, cruise lines would have needed to work with town officials instead.
[RELATED: New Cruise Ship Ordinance on the Ballot in Bar Harbor This November]
Placing limitations on cruise tourism has proven controversial for Bar Harbor in recent years, spurring two separate legal battles since 2022.
About a month after voters approved the ordinance, a group of businesses filed a complaint against the town, alleging that the ordinance was in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, suggesting that cruise ships fall under the category of interstate commerce.
Charles Sidman — the man behind the original 2022 citizens initiative effort to implement these limitations — has also taken legal action against Bar Harbor over the Council’s decision in March to allow ships with more than 1,000 passengers to dock in Bar Harbor this season if they were booked prior to the November 2022 vote.
According to an update posted on the Town’s website in September, the Maine Superior Court granted their motion to dismiss one of the complaints in Sidman’s case against them.
The Town also noted that on September 10, Golden Anchor, L.C., doing business as Harborside Pier, filed a complaint in Hancock County Superior Court regarding Bar Harbor’s implementation of the 2022 referendum.
The Maine Wire reached out to all members of the Bar Harbor Town Council for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Sidman and his ilk are pompous, insufferable elitists. No doubt they’re Democrats who can’t resist telling everyone else what to do. The overrated town will take a hit financially. Boo Hoo!
Maine cannot depend only on AirB&B, which is owned by China Governor..