SEARSPORT – Selectmen voted Tuesday night to take the first steps toward a moratorium on development on Sears Island.

The move comes in response to interest by an unidentified company in building a $500 million liquid natural gas terminal on the 941-acre state-owned island.

David Cole, commissioner of the Department of Transportation, and other state officials met earlier Tuesday with Searsport town officials to discuss the LNG proposal, which is still in its infancy.

State officials, including Gov. John Baldacci, have said in recent days that while they support LNG for Maine as a source of clean fuel and economic development, they will not back a project over the objections of the town.

Town Manager Sandra Blake told selectmen Tuesday night that she believes state officials have gotten the message that an LNG terminal proposal for Sears Island will not be warmly received in Searsport.

“I don’t think they’ll be back for LNG,” she said. “I think they know the community doesn’t want it. It’s too hot a potato.”

Selectman Jack Merrithew announced last week his intention to make a motion at Tuesday’s meeting to adopt a six-month moratorium on development in the town’s marine district, which includes Mack Point and Sears Island.

Instead, selectmen voted to direct Blake to work with the town’s attorney to draft the proper language for a six-month development moratorium for Sears Island only. The moratorium would have to be approved at a special town meeting.

Blake reported her conversation with an attorney at the Maine Municipal Association, who cautioned her to use an attorney “every step of the way” to reduce the chances of facing a lawsuit.

Earlier, Phyllis Sommer, chairwoman of the town’s Comprehensive Plan Committee, said her group needed more time as it developed ordinances and regulations for the various districts included in the plan.

The Tuesday meeting with DOT’s Cole, which was not open to the public or press, included Blake, Sommer, Selectmen Bruce Mills and Joe Perry, planning board Chairman Bruce Probert, harbor master Wayne Hamilton, Assessor Bill Terry, and code enforcement officer Randy Hall.

Blake also said the meeting left her believing state officials may be considering a way to site an LNG terminal inland, with the fuel being transported from a ship at a docking facility through a pipeline to the terminal.

Some of the opposition to the LNG proposal spilled over earlier at Tuesday night’s meeting during a presentation of the Pine Tree Zone by Darren Winham of Eastern Maine Development Corp. Searsport is included in the Midcoast Zone, one of eight regions that won designation for a package of business tax incentives earlier this month.

The GAC Chemical plant and Sprague’s fuel terminal at Mack Point were included in the Midcoast application. The town is considering including Sears Island in the group of designated Pine Tree Zone properties, but many at Tuesday’s meeting were wary of doing so for fear of inviting heavy industry to the island.

If the town is to include any properties in the Pine Tree Zone, which is designed to lure new businesses and encourage existing businesses to expand, it must vote to do so at a special town meeting. Blake said that meeting probably would not be scheduled before June.

Another public information meeting will be held on the Pine Tree Zone question before the special town meeting, she said.