US District Court judge upholds right of Bar Harbor to limit cruise ship passenger visits to 1000 per day

In a complaint filed in December 2022, the Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods (APPLL) sought to block implementation of a new Bar Harbor ordinance that would limit cruise ship passenger disembarkations into the town to 1000 per day.

Members of APPLL include BH Piers LLC, Harborside Hotel and Bar Harbor Whale Watch - all businesses likely to see revenue reductions as a result of limits on cruise passengers coming into the town. With the new ordinance in place, Bar Harbor businesses in aggregate could be seeing an annual tourist-spend loss of 60%-90% vs. pre-COVID 2019.

In a Decision and Order handed down Thursday, US District Judge Lance Walker found:

• The Bar Harbor ordinance limiting cruise-ship passsenger landings to 1000 per day is "a lawful exercise of home rule authority under the Maine Constitution".
• The ordinance "does not violate the Due Process Clause or the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution".
• Insofar as cruise ship passengers are concerned, "the 1,000-person cap survives challenge under the Supremacy Clause."
• "Plaintiff and Plaintiff-Intervenor fail to demonstrate cause to invalidate the Ordinance insofar as it operates as a restriction on passenger disembarkations."

Under a Memorandum of Agreement currently in place between Bar Harbor and the cruise lines, passenger disembarkations are limited to 3800/day in May, June, September and October and 3500/day in July and August. This MOA had been scheduled to expire at the end of 2023, but the Town Council voted to extend it to the 2024 cruise season for existing bookings. No new bookings are being accepted under the existing MOA for 2024 or 2025.

How will the 2024 season go, and what will a new MOA for 2025 (if any) look like? Stay tuned.