POLAND — Plans for bringing a McDonald’s to town in the very near future are a step closer following action at Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting.
The plans, being presented on behalf of C.N. Brown, would replace the firm’s existing Citgo station at the Five Corners intersection with a combination Big Apple convenience store and a 50-seat McDonald’s.
Tom Saucier, engineer with Site Design Associates of Topsham, who had given the board sketch plans in December, presented the board with a refinement of the earlier plans and detailed progress he had made dealing with state agencies, primarily the Maine Department of Transportation, in the interim.
Board members, spending the better part of two hours checking the latest plans for compliance with local ordinances, were generally satisfied that Saucier’s updates had addressed most of their, and other agencies, earlier concerns.
The board noted that the plans appeared to fall a little short of meeting criteria for what some call the New England “village look” required by ordinances devised for the town’s downtown village area.
“It’s important we do a good job with this, make it look nice,” board member William Foster said, “but as it is, McDonald’s roof doesn’t speak village.”
Saucier, noting that McDonald’s has a number of styles it can use, said he would discuss alternatives with McDonald’s personnel.
Responding to similar concerns regarding the shape of the canopy over the line of 10 fuel-pump bays, Saucier showed the board a picture of a canopy with a mansard-style roof that was deemed acceptable should C.N. Brown use it as a model.
The board was pleased that problems with the plans for internal, on-site traffic patterns had been ironed out and that MDOT appeared happy with entrances and exits on and off Routes 26 and 11.
Poland Code Enforcement Officer Nick Adams noted that, while acceptable to MDOT, some of the plan’s features would require the Planning Board to make waivers of certain specifications contained in the local ordinance.
The board also asked Saucier for more landscape screening along the rear property line.
Adams and the board reviewed plans for compliance with all items on the site-plan review checklist.
The board directed Adams to draw up written documents on its wishes and to work with Saucier to make sure that all would be in order for the board to render a decision on final plans at its May 27 meeting.
Kevin Moore, representing C.N. Brown, said that, pending Planning Board approval at its next meeting, work on the project would begin in June and that he hoped it could be completed in October.
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