When the Bar Harbor Town Council authorized new paid parking kiosks in March, it opened the door to local residents possibly getting free parking downtown even during the height of the tourism season.
“It opened up potential options for what I deemed an enhanced residential parking program,” Bar Harbor Town Manager James Smith said during a Town Council workshop Tuesday.
Now, Smith said, town staff was trying to find out what those options would look like and council direction about even if they want to pursue it. The councilors did.
The paid parking policy began in 2019. It now generates millions in revenue. Since 2019, the policy has been tweaked more than 16 times.
There are multiple options now that can allow breaks for Bar Harbor residents.
“You can give your residents a certain amount of time. You can reset that on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. You can do it on a discount, so you can give them a certain percentage off, and you can reset that so that they can get 50% off three parking sessions per week or per day, or however you want to lay that out, or you can do it a fixed price, give them so many hours of parking at a fixed price each week and reset that either on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis,” Bar Harbor Police Capt. Christopher Wharff explained. “Your options are pretty limitless here, which is why we wanted to come to you and talk about it.”
Currently, there is a free permit policy in place for residents for several side streets in town proper. This potential program would be in addition to that. There are also discounted tokens now, which are given out island-wide, but are not well used.
Finance Director Sarah Gilbert said that only half the tokens purchased have been redeemed.
“We’ve heard a lot of these — for lack of a better word — grumblings by residents and the question then is: is there something we can do now that we have this new technology to help that and balance all these other considerations,” Smith said. “I think there is.”
Council Chair Val Peacock said she’s heard there aren’t enough permitted side street spaces for residents who do not live downtown proper. Permits are for side streets. Paid parking is for the spaces downtown on the major streets and lots.
“I think if there was a way to think about that. I don’t think it should just be free all the time,” Peacock said, but that it’s interesting to look at options and see what they look like.
People can use an app or pay at a kiosk for those paid spots.
Vice Chair Maya Caines also wondered about the town allotment per resident, to say that everyone in Bar Harbor gets a certain number of hours each season. Coupons could allow residents to key in a number on a kiosk.
“Free parking up to a certain amount, I think, would make people very happy,” Caines said.
The question, Wharff said, is what kind of benefit the councilors would like to give to their residents.
Councilor Earl Brechlin said it would be important not to let the discount rate negatively impact the turn-over of the spot.
Councilor Steven Boucher asked if the residents could have the first 30 minutes free and pay after that.
Wharff was not sure. The town does have the ability to have either a percentage off, fixed discount or fixed price parking. That use can be reset daily, weekly or monthly.
Free parking felt better than discounted, Peacock said.
Smith said the town would like to get data on turnover and use of the spots. The last data from 2024 showed a turnover in some spots that was more than 95%. The goal is typically 85% occupancy.
“The policy is to create turnover so that there is parking available, but there is a benefit to collecting these parking fees for the taxpayers because we can use it to offset property taxes. But we also want to be careful we don’t become overly dependent on it and if it dips down one year, we have a budget shortfall,” Smith said.
Since it began in 2019, paid parking has provided revenue for the town.
This past season, the town has collected approximately $3.5 million as of Feb. 28, which is 85% of the yearly goal. It anticipates collecting $4 million by the end of the fiscal year in June. Last year, it collected $3.3 million.
The highest parking meter revenue days for Bar Harbor in 2025, according to Gilbert, were July 5 and Oct. 11.
The parking revenue helps to offset the cost of property taxes, which has been a concern among many residents on fixed or lower incomes in the past few years.
Boucher said that if two hours were free every week and 1,000 permits used that, it would be $192,000 for the season. He said, however, he’s for the change.
Brechlin doubted that it would be that high a use.
“For a $4 million revenue,” Peacock said, putting the number into an overall parking revenue perspective.
The councilors agreed that if a change became a fiscal issue, they could revert back to how it’s currently being run.
“We have a lot of pressure in this town to think about the level of tourism that we have in this town. That revenue now becomes dependent on cars and people parking in those spots. We’ve been fairly conservative in our projections in how we assign that money, but we budget for spending that money before we spend that money,” Peacock said.
If there’s a bad year, she said, that could have impacts because it’s not a guaranteed source of income.
“Cars are part of the issue that we have in Bar Harbor and now we’re building a budget dependent on cars and there’s some conflict there for me,” she said. “I joke around about this. Parking spots are $11K each. Each parking spot raises $11K a year for the town of Bar Harbor.”
It’s likely more than that now, she said. The more each spot is worth, she said, the harder it is to take it away for another potential use.
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.
