POLAND — Voters at Saturday’s annual town meeting approved an amendment to the town’s zoning map that creates a Village 4 District in the vicinity of the intersection of Routes 26 and 122.

“This has been three years in the making,” resident George Sanborn said. “This is a great thing for Poland.”

Sanborn noted that the area would blossom once the recently approved $4.5 million project to bring in water and sewer lines becomes a reality.

Planning Board Chairman Chuck Finger said the building design standards that will be applied to developments in the new Village 4 District are critical to ensuring that the southern gateway to town develop in a manner compatible with people’s vision of what a New England village ought to look like.

“This is the gateway to Poland,” Finger said. “When we began this, we didn’t know the casino would be coming, but now word is out that it is, interest in this area is up.”

Resident Art Dunlap criticized the proposed ordinance for failing to define all of its terms and for being fuzzy on details.

Finger agreed that the ordinance was not perfect but should be sufficient and give the Planning Board flexibility while protecting the character of the town.

Voters also amended the portion of the Waterhouse Brook Resource Protection District near the town fire station, reducing the stream setback from 250 feet to 100 feet. With the current setback, an addition to the fire station would be impossible.

Townspeople authorized selectmen to apply for a Communities for Maine’s Future grant and agreed that up to $125,000 from the Downtown Village TIF District could be used as a match.

John Cleveland, the town’s economic development adviser, said the grant was a good opportunity for the Poland Historical Society to expand the cultural history museum at the old schoolhouse.

“We have a competitive project,” Cleveland said.

Proposed amendments to the Poland Beach Use Ordinance passed without discussion.

Town Manager Dana Lee noted that the amendments “add teeth” to the existing ordinance and are a proper response to the mistreatment, which occurred last summer, of the town-owned beach on Tripp Lake off Route 11.

Voters moved quickly through articles that set yet another annual operating budget that calls for no new tax increase.

Lee said that, if approved as presented, the budget would keep the town’s tax rate at $13.40 per thousand in property value, provided the amount of money needed to run Regional School Unit 16 remains constant.

“This will be the third year in a row at this level,” Lee said.

Major portions of the basic budget for operating town functions were approved with minor increases.

The amount allocated for town administration rose about $16,000 to $540,000.

The amounts approved for Public Works and Public Safety rose by proportionately similar amounts and now stand at $730,000 and $777,000, respectively.

Voters agreed with Lee’s discomfort that for several years now the town had been underfunding its investments in roads, equipment and other capital assets. They approved a major increase in the amount to be set aside for the town’s capital improvement program by approving $240,000 more than they did a year ago.

The total allocated this year rose to $938,143.

“I think it was well-recognized at our budget-listening session that ‘kicking the can down the road’ on our capital needs is not a sustainable, or responsible, strategy,” Lee said.

The town meeting gave special recognition to Barbara Strout as this year’s recipient of the W. Ballard Nash Community Service Award; to Judith Akers on serving as Poland’s town clerk for 35 years; and to Peter and Paul Bergeron, in business as Pete’s Garage since 1970 and recipients of the Community and Economic Development Committee’s Business Recognition Award.

Attendance was just a little under 150.