For the past few months, Rockport residents have been working with  Tyler Smith, the son of Stuart and Marianne Smith and an accomplished businessman in his own right, to achieve a reasonable compromise on concerns relating to the size and scope of the family’s proposed hotel on Central Street. 

Although many Rockport residents are opposed to any hotel being built in our small historic downtown, others hope to strike a balance between revitalization efforts and smart growth, so that Rockport expands its tax base but retains its character and reputation as the “hidden gem of Midcoast”.

Like Tyler, members of the Select and Planning Boards and town employees also deserve thanks for wisely deciding to postpone a final vote on the hotel application that was originally scheduled for last month. Tyler will present a revised application to the Planning Board at its meeting tomorrow, February 27, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. at the Rockport Opera House.

Careful deliberation is critical at this time when many Rockport residents are already upset by the “supersizing” of the new library. This project expanded from the size authorized by voters to the significantly larger structure now under construction, which to many appears disproportionate to the lot and the historic district. Rockport residents are concerned about a similar outcome if the Planning Board approves the hotel’s currently proposed size.

The proposed hotel has grown substantially in scope and size since Stuart first introduced it at an April 2017 Select Board meeting, where he described it as “20 to 22 sleeping rooms.”

In June, 2017, Rockport voters approved an ordinance which permits hotels in downtown Rockport Village, up to a combined total of 40 rooms. The size of the Smiths’ proposed hotel project then grew to a five-story, 35-room hotel with two restaurants, including a rooftop bar, modeled after their 21-room Camden hotel, 16 Bayview Street, but 60 percent larger.  

After many residents expressed concerns to the town about its size and related traffic, parking, safety and design concerns, Tyler recently revised the application but did not reduce the footprint of the hotel.  According to Tyler, the proposed hotel will now consist of 26 suites, which will each include two rooms, a bedroom and a living room. Consequently, the application notes that although one floor will be eliminated, “the building height and volume are still the same.”  

In order to fit the hotel onto the existing 18 Central Street lot and the vacant 20 Central Street lot where the Bartlett Building was located until the early 1970s, the Smiths are proposing to “infill” the entire space between the adjacent buildings, which they also own. If our town officials approve this current design, it will permanently alter Central Street’s historic architecture and Harbor viewshed for generations to come. It will also compound residents’ existing concerns about traffic, parking, and safety, on this small block and in the adjacent residential neighborhoods.

The Shepherd Block’s iconic Romanesque architecture is nationally renowned. Its historic renovation by the Leucadia Corporation, its previous owner, qualified for a federal historic tax credit from the National Park Service and won a Maine Preservation Honor Award. Unfortunately, the current hotel design will brick over almost every window on its west side (where the deck for 18 Central Oyster Bar & Grill is currently located). The loss of these windows will also deprive Bay Chamber and other current Smith tenants of natural light.

 Even more significantly, the Smith’s proposed hotel will completely block a harbor viewshed approximately 30 feet wide that has existed between the former Bartlett Building and the Shepherd Block for well over a century. This design disregards the Rockport Land Use Ordinance directive that is intended to protect existing scenic views from proposed development (Section 1003.1). 

For these reasons, a petition drive to place on the ballot a revised hotel ordinance which would restrict the size of downtown Rockport hotels to 20 rooms is gathering considerable momentum and signatures. The 20-room limit was chosen because it corresponds to the hotel size Stuart originally proposed, will still enable the Smiths to generate a nice profit as they do with 16 Bayview, and will grow Rockport’s tax base in support of the Town’s revitalization efforts.  

A second petition also is being circulated which will still allow the town to waive parking requirements for developers, but only after requiring them to pay for an independent study to evaluate any related parking, traffic and safety issues. Concerned residents are continuing to urge the Planning Board to require an independent third party traffic and parking study by a qualified traffic planner and engineer, before granting approval for the hotel. Other Maine municipalities routinely require developers to pay for such impact studies, which are a reasonable cost of doing business. 

Residents also were concerned to learn that the Select Board voted on January 13, 2020 to eliminate parking space requirements for developers in the downtown district. While we realize that the Board is working toward a revised parking ordinance, its premature vote on this critical issue (which was not even specifically listed on the agenda) only exacerbated residents’ concerns about lack of transparency. Finally, many Rockport residents are concerned about the remote valet parking plan at Maine Street Meats which the Zoning Board of Appeals approved on January 22, 2020. This allows a commercial parking operation to be spread across three quarters of a mile of residential neighborhoods. 

If you share our concerns about the Smith hotel project, please consider attending the Planning Board meeting tomorrow night , at 5:30 p.m. at the Rockport Opera House and/or emailing both the Town Planner and Town Manager at bnajpauer@rockportmaine.gov and wpost@rockportmaine.gov, if you are a Rockport registered voter and want to sign the two petitions, please email us at rockporthotelpetition@gmail.com and we will bring the official petitions to you for signature.

If you are not a registered Rockport voter or live in Camden or another town and want to support our efforts, please show your symbolic support by signing a petition at  http://chng.it/jbfG4yMn.

(Feel free to ignore change.org’s request for a $2 donation, which we were unable to remove from its petition format. We are not seeking money, just signatures.)

Claire Tully lives in Rockport