BAR HARBOR, Maine — In Bar Harbor, there’s conflict around the town’s limit on the number of cruise ship passengers that can come ashore.
Bar Harbor currently caps the number of passengers to 1,000 a day.
The town passed the ordinance in 2022, and this February, a federal judge upheld the limit after local business owners sued the town over the restrictions.
But now that same group of Bar Harbor business owners are appealing the decision saying the cruise ship passenger limit is hurting business.
"Ships are constantly canceling, and we are down a lot this year for numbers of cruise ships. There are many that have canceled for the fall and there are minimal scheduled for next year," business owner Shawn Porter said.
Porter and her husband own Little Village Gifts and say 20 to 40 percent of their annual revenue comes from cruise ship passengers.
But if that revenue goes away, they may not be able to stay afloat.
"This is year 33 for us and we're not looking to really work harder than we've worked for 33 years," Porter said. "If it's going to be harder, then I don't know if we're going to want to continue to do it."
Many residents of Bar Harbor support the limit. Charlie Sidman, who has lived there for over 40 years, started the 2022 petition to limit the number of passengers coming on shore.
"The cruise ships take over the town when they come in. Other residents can't use the downtown," Sidman said. "I have a business over there that my regular customers won't come anywhere near the town on cruise ship days."
Now Sidman is suing the town, saying it's not enforcing the regulation.
"This is a town run amuck, they are lawless," he said. "I believe they are corrupt, and that's what the bigger fight is about."
But the town says it's working on enforcement.
Town Councilor Gary Friedmann said that Bar Harbor has not been taking any new reservations for ships carrying more than 1,000 passengers since the vote in 2022.
"We are limiting the size of ships that are coming in this year and residents are seeing a much smaller number of cruise ship passengers this year," Friedmann said.
Friedmann said the town is still figuring out how it will count and enforce the disembarkations as more cruise ships will have to follow the ordinance in the coming years, that booked after 2022.
The Bar Harbor Town Council and Planning Board are meeting on Thursday to discuss the regulations and how they plan to enforce them going forward.