Poland plans with casino in mind

POLAND — The town is planning for its future with the proposed casino in Oxford Hills in mind.

“On Tuesday, December 7, we held a workshop with selectmen, the planning board and the Community and Economic Development Committee (CEDC),” said Town Manager Dana Lee. “The workshop covered two topics: The first was to set design standards, called South Village Design Standards, for the southern part of town at the Route 122 and 26 intersections, especially in light of the proposed casino in Oxford. The second was the priority of downtown projects and use of Tax Increment Financing funds.”

Lee said officials want to be sure development in that area looks and functions well.

“This is geared toward commercial buildings,” Lee continued. “We want commercial development to be very tasteful – parking in the rear, good landscaping using the colonial village design with farmer’s porches and pitched roofs, not box buildings. No long straight walls like a massive Wal-Mart building, although we don't allow massive buildings in Poland. Buildings are limited to 50,000 square feet, so no super centers would locate here anyway. Everyone at the workshop was in agreement, and now the planning board will issue the ultimate opinion. They can now make a decision with all the input from all the right people.”

Poland has village design standards for the downtown and the new Dunkin' Donuts Plaza had to follow these downtown village design standards. The design standards from the downtown area formed the basis for the south part of town with a few added stipulations, Lee said.

“The second part of that workshop covered our priorities for use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds,” he continued. “What did people think is the greatest priority? Did they think even think there is a priority, or did they think that we ought to let the TIF funds accumulate and wait for a big development that might be very demanding on the funds?"

Lee said that the workshop attendees advocated a conservative approach to spending the money.

"I think that the consensus was that the funds don't have to burn a hole in our pocket," said Lee. "So we will probably conserve and wait for a bigger opportunity, rather than additional landscaping or granite curbing, little things that make it look pretty but don’t change the face of the town. If something comes along that's a great opportunity and of course we will keep looking for those great opportunities, we will not be unreasonable."

Lee said that leaders anticipate a future need for the funds in order to best capitalize on casino-spurred development.

"For the most part, I think the expectation is, with the casino going in above us is that something is going to happen big in our downtown," said Lee. "We're going to need to have some money to enter it into some sort of public or private partnership.”