BAR HARBOR, Maine (WABI) – Following lawsuits against the city following a 2022 vote to limit cruise passengers, Bar Harbor residents will be asked next Tuesday if they want to set a higher limit on the number of passengers each can disembark. day.

“We have a question asking the citizens of the city to repeal a current land use ordinance, which is the current way we manage cruise ship visitation in the city of Bar Harbor,” said City Council President by Bar Habor, Valerie Peacock.

“What will be on the ballot next Tuesday is whether citizens will vote to cancel the 2022 legislation. If citizens vote to cancel, the council has already approved an alternative set of rules that we believe would be disastrous for democracy in Bar Harbor ” said Bar Harbor resident Charles Sidman.

Amid lawsuits from both sides of the issue, the city is taking a new approach to managing cruise ships with this ballot question, although some believe it is already set for 2022.

“Our staff and legal team and the council worked together to create a new system to manage cruise ship visits, which is a license agreement approach. “So our approach requires that cruise ships have a license to visit and a reservation to visit the city of Bar Harbor, and within that contract and reservation system are the limits for a limitation, including a daily limit of 3,200,” Peacock explained .

“They scared the City Council. The City Council does not know what to do if they sue it, and now that party is suing it for the limitations, and the citizens, that is, myself, are suing it for not observing and executing the laws. Sidman said.

If passed, the new ordinance would also shift the burden of enforcing the limit from dock owners to cruise lines.

“So, we have been in court defending the constitutionality of the ordinance, as well as working to determine the rules to implement it, and the Council began to face more litigation issues, as well as challenges regarding its implementation, so it ordered the staff to bring an alternative to that land use ordinance,” Peacock added.

“We are basically suing the city for rewriting, what I would say, illegally rewriting the ordinance and directing their employees not to enforce it. I mean, how does the city government do that? There is a written law and they admitted publicly and in writing that they are changing the law. They are not respecting it and have told their employees not to enforce it. Let’s go,” Sidman explained.

If Article 4 is approved, the new ordinance would also include monthly and annual passenger limits.

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