Bar Harbor transient accommodations development on hold until at least 7 March 2025

At a special meeting held yesterday, the Bar Harbor Town Council voted 6-1 to extend for at least 60 days the Emergency Transient Accommodations Moratorium they had first enacted in November 2024. The moratorium puts on hold any new hotel, motel, campground, b&b and short-term rental (e.g., Airbnb) projects in order to give town officials sufficient time to study impacts on traffic, water, sewer and permanent housing. The moratorium applies to any projects that were incomplete and currently in progress as of 19 November 2024. Although included in an initial proposal, owner-occupied vacation rentals are exempted from the moratorium.