Barharbormaine.gov

PLANNING BOARD MEMBERS

The Planning Board meets the 1st & 3rd Wednesday of each month at 600pm.
You can view the meeting schedule on the web calendar.

Please note that:
Deadline for submission of new applications is 2 weeks prior to a meeting. Deadline for submission for administrative reviews, subdivision endorsements and information discussions with the Board is 1 week prior to a meeting.

View the next Agenda

View the Rules of Procedure

Planning Board Procedures

  Bar Harbor Planning Board

1. Officers shall serve in one-year terms, graduating from Secretary to Vice-Chair to Chair as each term is completed.

2. The Vice-Chair shall have the added responsibility of liaison with the Town Council and represent the Planning Board at all meetings of the Town Council where Planning Board business is on the agenda.

3. Appointment to Secretary shall be made of the member who is not currently an officer and has the most seniority on the Board without serving or having since served as an officer.

4. Any member or officer can decline any appointment.

5. Regular meetings will be held twice monthly on the first and third Wednesday of the month as necessary, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and are to last no longer than four hours. The Board reserves the right to evaluate its progress through the agenda at 8:00 p.m. in order to consider and/or make any further adjustments in order to adjourn punctually at 9:30 p.m. No more than one hour will be spent on any one application.

A. In the event the Planning Board determines at any point during the meeting and/or at 8:00 p.m. that it will not be able complete the business on hand, the Board will table forward to the next regular meeting those applications that the Board believes it will not be able to begin reviewing that night. All efforts will be made by the Planning Department staff to make applicants aware of this possibility prior to the meeting.

B. In the event the Planning Board determines at the end of the hour-long review and/or public hearing period that it will be unable to complete the review of and/or public hearing for the application, the Board will continue the review or hearing to the next regular meeting or at its discretion, to a special meeting called for the purpose of continuing the review and/or public hearing.

6. Order of Agenda

The Planning Board agenda shall be organized as follows:

I. Call to Order

II. Approval of Minutes

III. Adoption of Agenda

IV. Regular Business

V. Other Business

VI. Board member comments for the next agenda

VII. Adjournment

Applications shall be listed in the order received by the Planning Department under "IV. Regular Business."

Public requests, such as for land use ordinance amendments or guidance, shall be discussed under "V. Other Business."

7. Form of Submittals

a. Each application for Site Plan Review or Subdivision approval shall be submitted in a binder so that loose papers are not mislaid.

b. Numerical tabs shall mark each exhibit to simplify reference during the meeting. The number of the tab shall be the same as the number for the exhibit listed on the checklist.

c. Exhibits larger than 8-1/2" x 11" shall be reduced to 8-1/2" x 11" for the binder copies and two full size copies of the larger format exhibit shall be submitted concurrently with the application, one for display use during meetings and for use by the public and one as a secure file copy.

d. Staff will standardize all exhibit numbers so that they do not change from application to application and meeting to meeting.

e. Any waivers requested shall be numbered as for the corresponding exhibit, tabbed and insert in the corresponding position.

f. To clarify the nature and location of existing features, site plans shall include both "before" and "after" drawings.

8. Substantial Completeness

a. "Substantially Complete" means that in the professional judgment of the Planning Director all of the exhibits required by the LUO are included in the application, that they provide the information reasonably needed by the Planning Board to make its decision and, if a submittal waiver is requested, that the subject of the waiver is not applicable to this particular application.

b. When an applicant feels that they have assembled all of the information needed to make his/her application complete, they shall make an appointment to meeting with the Planning Director.

i. The appointment is necessary so that the Director can dedicate sufficient time to the review.

ii. It is not anticipated that the Director will make an immediate finding of substantial completeness at the meeting, since the application checklist is much too extensive and complicated to permit cursory review.

iii. If upon submittal an application is found to be incomplete, the Planning Director shall inform the applicant of the missing information and return all documents to the applicant.

I. The Planning Director will accept only substantially complete applications. In the past, the presence in the file of incompletely prepared "progress prints" has confused our determination of what constitutes the final approved project.

iv. Once an application found to be substantially complete:

I. The Planning Director shall:

A. Initial each page of the application. Apply a Planning Department supplied "Exhibit" sticker to each page of the application.

B. Return the application to the applicant for use in making the required copies for submittal as outlined below.

II. The applicant will prepare and provide to the Planning Director ten copies of the full application in binders with tabs, together with two copies of all large format exhibits.

III. Staff will date stamp all pages of each exhibit of the secure file copy "Received" so that we can later determine the last submitted version.

IV. The Planning Director shall provide the applicant with a written receipt and schedule the application for Planning Board review as required by LUO §125-61

c. Should an applicant disagree with the Planning Director's decision that his/her application is incomplete, appeal can be made to the Board of Appeals as provided by LUO §125-103.

9. Public Review

The following procedure is established:

a. A full copy of one of the application binders, along with any large format exhibits, will be available to the general public for review in the planning office.

b. Another application binder and one copy of any large format exhibits will be maintained in a secure file to which only staff has access.

i. Members of the public wishing to review the secure copy must file a citizen's "Right to Know" law request as provided by state law and will be supervised by staff as they review the file.

ii. A record of public access requests granted will be maintained in the file.

10. Documentation of the approved plans

a. The day after Planning Board approval of a site plan or subdivision application:

i. The Planning Director will provide the Planning Department Executive Secretary with the secure file as approved by the Planning Board.

ii. The Executive Secretary will stamp every page of the secure file with a date stamp, reading "Approved."

iii. All large format copies will be placed in a flat file in the planning office.

I. They will be date-stamped "Approved" as outlined above.

II. They will be numbered consecutively and indexed for rapid retrieval.

III. They will be treated as secure.

A. Members of the public wishing to review the secure copy will have to file a citizen's "Right to Know" law request as provided by state law.

B. They will be supervised by staff as they review the documents.

C. A record of public access requests granted will be maintained in the file.

11. Late submittals

a. The submittal of exhibits during a Planning Board meeting is strongly discouraged, since it may not allow sufficient time for Board and staff review and confuses the meeting record.

b. Any exhibits submitted after the initial substantial completeness determination by the Planning Director shall:

i. Contain a statement that they void any previous submittal in conflict therewith;

ii. Be complete as required by the land use ordinance and Board rules;

iii. Clearly show how they differ from the original submittal, preferably by the use of gray scale lines showing the previous proposal;

iv. Include an adequate number of copies as outlined above, including the large format exhibits.

c. When exhibits are accepted by the Board during a meeting, time will be taken to:

i. Mark the exhibits as required by LUO §125-61;

ii. Date-stamp the exhibit "Received" so that the record is clear as to which version was received last and/or ultimately approved.

iii. Review the submittal to make sure that it is complete as required by LUO and Board rules.

d. If it is determined that a submittal does not meet requirements of the LUO or Board rules, the Board will pass a motion to that effect which clearly states the reason for the finding.

12. Planning Director's report

a. The Planning Director is required to review each and every development application to assure its substantial compliance with the Land Use Ordinance, Planning Board rules, Comprehensive Plan and other adopted Town plans.

b. The Planning Director is to write the Board a report for each development application stating that the application is substantially complete, whether the application meets the requirements of the Land Use Ordinance, Planning Board rules, Comprehensive Plan and other adopted Town plans and outlining areas where, in the Director's professional opinion, additional information should be requested, waivers could be granted or better planning techniques would be beneficial.

c. In addition, the Planning Director is encouraged to offer his/her professional opinion and make recommendations for ways in which the development application can better comply with the Land Use Ordinance, Comprehensive Plan and other adopted Town plans.

d. It is not the intent of these rules to dilute the role of the Planning Board in any way since:

i. The Planning Director's report is only advisory to the Board;

ii. The Land Use Ordinance is very specific in some areas - these are the areas in which the Planning Director can make preliminary determinations;

iii. Other Land Use Ordinance areas are discretionary -- these are the areas where staff should clearly defer to the Planning Board;

iv. In all instances the Board is free to override or reverse a recommendation of the Planning Director since the Board is charged by law with making the final decision.

13. Effective date

a. All applications considered by the Planning Board shall meet the requirements of these rules.

b. Public notice of these changes shall be given by:

i. Advertising the availability of these rules in a newspaper of general circulation, and

ii. Posting a copy of these rules for thirty days:

I. in the Planning Department office;

II. on the bulletin board of the Municipal Building;

III. on the Town of Bar Harbor web site;

IV. and by making copies of these rules available for distribution in the Planning Department office.