Bar Harbor Parking Solutions Committee Proposes Doing Away with Parklets and Raising Parking Meter Fees

The Bar Harbor Town Council will discuss at their Tuesday, June 15th meeting the Bar Harbor Parking Solutions Committee's recommendation to do away with the parklets and to increase the hourly rate for parking from $2.00 to $3.00 for 223 meters in the core of Bar Harbor from July 1st through October 11th.

The proposed increase in the parking fees would raise an estimated $173,000 in revenue which would more than offset the money that the Town of Bar Harbor would have to refund to the businesses that already signed up for the parklets for the summer season.

The recommendation to the Council is that all parklets would need to be removed by July 15th, as the State of Emergency is ending as of June 30th, and indoor capacity limits on stores and restaurants were removed as of May 24th.

CLARIFICATION  I spoke with Eben Salvatore the Chair of the Parking Solutions Task Force. They are not officially recommending the end of the parklets, but are recommending the increase in the parking meter rates to offset the removal of the parklets. It would appear that the removal of the parklets is being recommended by the Town Manager to the Council