Towns on Mount Desert Island often have occasional noise complaints. In Bar Harbor (and last year in Tremont), those complaints tend to be about live music being played in restaurants.
The town of Mount Desert, though, is a bit different.
The complaints in Mount Desert tend to be about construction noise.
This summer most of those complaints focused around Seal Harbor, where there were multiple projects. There was blasting, drilling and other construction noise.
At least one property owner affected by the construction would like the town to have a noise ordinance to help with communication around the disruptions.
“I understand that up to this date, September 20, 2026, there is no noise ordinance or rules around dynamiting for the Town of Mt. Desert. Communications about concerns are managed by the residents, both those under construction and their neighbors,” Marnie Phillips wrote.
An ordinance is needed for the town, she explained, so that there are rules to help property owners navigate the situations.
“Some folks will send out a letter to neighbors advising them of their plans and providing a phone number if there is an issue. Other folks under construction have no regard for neighbors and the disruption. I am a summer resident of Seal Harbor, and there are currently a minimum of six on-going construction projects. There is no guidance given as to the level of noise or the time of noise. While I understand that construction projects are a reality, many of us are trying to enjoy this beautiful place and work from our homes,” she said.
The construction, she wrote, “would be tolerable with rules for everyone.”
She asked for an ordinance with guidelines for timeframes for different types of work.
“It would be beneficial to all to have noise ordinance guidelines which covers both timeframes for regular work, shorter timeframes for noises over a given decibel level e.g. jackhammering ledge, and notification of all dynamiting. Over the last 4-5 years, our house has shaken and doors have slammed due to dynamiting. On some occasions we received notification of the dynamiting and a company came and inspected our premises prior to the event. In other cases, the dynamiting just occurred. Given the small area in which this dynamiting is occurring, it would be difficult to prove which project caused what damage. There could be structural issues to homes with no ramifications for the people doing the dynamiting. Residents and their homes should be protected,” she wrote.
No action on her request was taken during the Tuesday Mount Desert Select Board meeting.
“So, the comment I guess I would make is that as much as last summer may have been a lot about traffic and parking, this summer was definitely the summer of noise complaints and people. This is about the third or fourth request for a noise ordinance that I received over the course of the summer. This is just the first one where she wanted to put it into the minutes. Every one of them is related to construction noise, every single complaint,” Town Manager Alex Kimball told the Select Board.
“And it’s tricky because in the grand scheme of things that tend to follow the law of unintended consequences, there’s noise ordinances first and foremost above all else. Noise ordinances can quickly turn into something other than their intended use: two neighbors who just start checking each other’s decibel levels incessantly and coming back and forth after each other and stuff like that. But that being said, it’s really been all about the construction noise. Seal Harbor in particular, but in some of the places in Northeast Harbor, blasting and requests for time limits on when those noises can occur. So, [it’s a] tricky thing because noise ordinances can run amuck very fast if we’re not careful with them. But I did want to mention this isn’t the only one. It’s been a pretty regular series of comments on it over the summer,” Kimball added.
Vice Chair Wendy Littlefield asked if there were rules and regulations around blasting.
Public Works Director Brian Henkel said he wasn’t sure of the details of exactly how far the radius is for notifications of adjacent landowners, but there are requirements that they have to do with noise and also potential damage to other structures close to the blasting site.
“No matter what a person does and goes through all those things and no matter how much you hear the blast and how much you know it’s coming, and then it happens and your whole house shakes, it’s always going to be upsetting no matter what,” Kimball said.
A primary problem has been construction noise starting before 7 a.m. Kimball suggested that if the board picked one aspect of the situation to tackle that this might be the one.
He said he’d be hesitant on nighttime caps.
“That’s where things tend to get ugly sometimes,” he said.
Nighttime caps exist in Bar Harbor’s ordinance on special amusement permits and its general noise ordinance. The special amusement ordinance regulates amplified music decibel levels for special amusement permitholders. The general noise ordinance regulates many other types of noise, including construction, and generally prohibits them from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Member David MacDonald said he was sympathetic to Phillips’ plight.
“It seems to be that we’ve reached a bit of a tipping point in terms of the old systems no longer doing what they were intended to do, as informal as they might have been,” MacDonald said.
This story was originally published by The Bar Harbor Story. To receive regular coverage from the Bar Harbor Story, sign up for a free subscription here.