MOUNT DESERT — Whether to impose a six-month moratorium on quarrying operations in the town will be going to voters at a special town meeting. The board of selectmen is expected to set a date for the vote at their Aug. 20 meeting.

The board voted unanimously Monday night to have the town attorney draft a moratorium ordinance to be placed on the warrant. If approved, the moratorium would be retroactive to Aug. 6, the date of the board’s vote.

The board took the action immediately after rejecting, on legal grounds, a citizen petition that called for a moratorium on quarrying.

A number of Hall Quarry residents who object to the operation of a nearby granite quarry had collected more than enough signatures to trigger a town meeting vote on a moratorium. But town attorney James Collier told the selectmen that the petition had flaws that made it invalid. He said the wording of the petition is confusing, and it was directed to the planning board instead of the board of selectmen.

Mr. Collier said it is well within the purview of the selectmen to propose a moratorium and to call a special town meeting to vote on it. Advocates of a moratorium say it would allow time for the town’s land use zoning ordinance to be changed to establish clear, reasonable rules on quarrying.

The current ordinance does not even mention quarrying operations. It allows for “mineral extraction” in most zoning districts, and the planning board recently ruled that quarrying qualifies as mineral extraction. But opponents of quarrying point out that the ordinance prohibits gravel pits throughout the town, and they argue that a quarry is more like a gravel pit than a mineral extraction site.

Also, the ordinance authorizes the planning board to impose conditions on permits for mineral extraction, such as limiting the hours of operation or the amount of noise generated, to minimize adverse impacts on neighboring property owners.

“The problem is that the permit is not issued by the planning board,” Mr. Collier said. “The permit is issued by the code enforcement officer. So, the planning board has nothing upon which to impose conditions. That’s a problem with the ordinance.”

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