A waterfront hotel in Bar Harbor that for years has provided docking space for cruise ship tenders that bring passengers to and from shore is taking the town to court.
Golden Anchor LC, the subsidiary of Bar Harbor Resorts that owns and operates the Harborside Hotel on West Street, is fighting a mandate by the town to obtain a disembarkation permit to allow cruise ship passengers to come ashore on its property.
The filing is the latest attempt by local tourism businesses to push back on sharp new limits on cruise ship visits to Bar Harbor. The number of visits to the town has steadily grown in recent decades from a couple of dozen each year to more than 150.
Golden Anchor is fighting a notice of violation that it received last August, when the town cited the company for not obtaining a disembarkation permit. Those permits are part of a new suite of rules the town adopted last year to limit visits by cruise ships. In December, the town’s appeals board upheld the violation finding.
Golden Anchor has now appealed that ruling to Hancock County Superior Court. In the appeal, which was filed last week, the company said that the town’s mandate to obtain the permit and to help enforce its new cruise ship limits is unconstitutional.
The new requirement to obtain a disembarkation permit, which was enacted last year by the Town Council, is effectively a change to the town’s Land Use Ordinance, which the town charter says can only be done by voters at a town meeting, the company argues. Golden Anchor also argues that the requirement improperly puts the company in a position of having to enforce the town’s daily 1,000-passenger limit, even though the town has not granted the company the authority to enforce that limit, which exposes it to possible civil liability.
The requirement also violates the hotel’s right to due process by not allowing it to continue operate as a legal non-conforming use, and by labeling the disembarkation of cruise ship passengers as a “nuisance,” even though the hotel has been permitted for docking cruise ship tenders for 24 years.
The company argues the requirement also is “discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious” because it targets cruise ship passengers while the town does nothing to limit the number of visitors who arrive by other modes of transportation.
Stephen Wagner, the town’s attorney, did not respond to a message seeking comment about the Golden Anchor’s court appeal.
Charles Sidman, a resident who has spearheaded efforts to reduce cruise ship traffic in Bar Harbor and has sharply criticized the town’s handling of the issue, also last week filed an appeal in court, arguing that the town’s appeals board should have granted him standing when the company challenged its notice of violation.
Both Golden Anchor’s appeal, and the one filed by Sidman, are being transferred to the state’s Business and Consumer Court, according to the Hancock County court clerk’s office.
Twice since 2022, Bar Harbor residents have voted in favor of allowing no more than 1,000 cruise ship passengers ashore on any given day. That limit effectively will ban visits by large ships, which generally carry 2,000 or more passengers.
A group of businesses including Golden Anchor have challenged that limit in federal court, arguing that the federal government regulates maritime activity, and that the town cannot legally prohibit people from coming ashore by boat.
A year ago, however, a federal judge in Bangor ruled in favor of the town. The business group, known as APPLL, has since challenged that ruling to the federal First Circuit appeals court in Boston, where oral arguments in the matter were held last month.