KINGFIELD – The Planning Board gave unanimous approval for Poland Spring Water Co. to build a multimillion-dollar bottling plant in Kingfield, after months of negotiations.

Discussion Thursday night focused on truck traffic traveling Route 27, particularly during peak morning and afternoon hours. The board agreed to limit the plant to 15 round trips per day, during the peak hours, of trucks carrying bottled water, bulk water, wastewater and materials. Bottled water loads cannot exceed 80,000 pounds and bulk water, 100,000.

Poland Spring also agreed to notify municipal officers in advance, of any substantial truck traffic route changes, or if the volume of daily traffic increases by 20 percent. Some traffic changes will require prior Planning Board approval..

Poland Spring spokesman Tom Brennan said the company is still in the permitting process with the Department of Environmental Protection, but it anticipate approval of that in coming weeks when they will prepare to break ground.

“It’s a big deal, and a big deal and a big projects, but its very reasonable,” Brennan said of the whole approval process. “It could have been a lot harder. This group has been outstanding to deal with. They haven’t missed a thing, and that’s good. They are doing their job.”

If all goes as planned, the plant should be constructed by October 2007, and operating by Dec. 31, 2008. Planners and the company agreed to re-evaluate the truck traffic situation, particularly through the center of Kingfield, after a year of plant operation.

Board member Betty Ann Listowick said, in turn, Poland Spring was “a very good applicant. Very accommodating, willing to compromise. Anything we asked for they delivered.”

Alison Hagerstrom, executive director of the Greater Franklin County Development Corporation, the group that worked for several years to bring the Poland Spring plant to the area, was quite pleased with the outcome.

“This is going to mean jobs, direct and indirect, and is a positive thing for Kingfield, Franklin County and the state of Maine.

“There is a work force here to fill the jobs. It’s a wonderful thing, really. It’s really the first big deal for the Franklin Development Corp., there will be more positive impacts that we can realize at this moment,” Hagerstrom added.

The small group in attendance celebrated the event with champagne and sparking Poland Spring water.

Earlier this year, the Poland-based company filed an application to build the $60 to $80 million bottling plant, on 5 acres south of town, and pump about 200 million gallons of water per year from the town’s aquifer.

Initially, the company will run two high-speed bottling lines and hire about 30 workers, natural resources manager Tom Brennan said. As production increases, that number is expected to grow to about 135 full-time employees. Some seasonal workers may be hired as well, he said.

In public hearings and meetings on the application, opponents mentioned the traffic, noise and light pollution, and the amount of water to be extracted, as damaging Kingfield’s village atmosphere.

With Thursday night’s approval, the company, a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America, hopes to start initial site work this fall for an early 2008 opening.