POLAND – Fifty voters braved Thursday evening’s snow-covered roads to approve funding for consultant services and a rezoning request.

They first approved Bryan Dench to serve as moderator for the special town meeting, which was held at the Poland Regional High School. Then they gave selectmen the green light to spend $13,000 to hire Community Dynamics Corp. of Auburn for an economic development study. The meeting ended with voters approving Selectman Bud Jordan’s request to rezone about 80 acres along Route 11.

While the Board of Selectmen as a body recommended funding the proposed economic consultant contract, Selectwoman Wendy Sanborn spoke against paying for the service.

“What I found with this particular firm was that, well, there was a statement that if you bring in business here, it would actually drive up taxes,” Sanborn said.

Sanborn referred to a Nov. 30 meeting when PolicyOne Research Inc. of Portland, also vying for the consultant contract, pointed out that more business could also mean more demand for services and infrastructure and more taxes.

In a 4-1 vote last month, selectmen chose the Auburn consulting firm contingent on town approval of funding. Sanborn had cast the dissenting vote.

Board Chairman Glenn Peterson pointed out to the sparse crowd Thursday that the money already existed in a special town fund earmarked for development. The $13,000 would come out of the Poland Spring Bottling Co. Tax Increment Finance District account, and no additional money was being asked from taxpayers.

“Also keep in mind that any recommendations the consultant might make will come back to the board and ultimately to the town to decide,” Peterson said.

Selectman Steve Robinson added that the town is seeking expertise on how to broaden its tax base.

“We’re not looking to become another Auburn,” Robinson said. “But we need to do more to diversify our tax base, and we want to find a happy medium. The reality is that it needs to be our plan, but we need to make to final decisions. But we’re no experts, and we’re looking for information.”

Selectmen made no recommendation for Jordan’s request to change his property zoning from farm and forest back to its original village zoning.

Larry Moreau, one member of the town’s Planning Board, informed the crowd that any property owner has the right to request a zoning change at any Planning Board meeting. The request has to go through a public hearing process and be decided by voters at a town meeting.

Jordan made his request about a year ago, before he was elected to the board of selectmen, to have his property return to its former zoning. The Planning Board had included Jordan’s property about 18 months ago when rezoning adjacent land.

The farm and forest zone requires a 5-acre minimum for building and subdividing, while Village requires only 2-acre parcels.

“I got nothing to hide,” said Jordan when voters asked what he planned to do with the property and why a selectman would be able to get his property rezoned at a special town meeting. “About half of it is wetlands, and I can’t do anything with it anyway.”

Jordan said about 40 acres was buildable.

“I’m at a point where I’m going to have to do something with it,” said Jordan. “I can’t afford to keep paying taxes on it every year. My granddaughter came to me and wanted a parcel. She doesn’t need five acres.”