Voters in Jonesport will weigh-in July 20 on whether to institute a six-month moratorium on aquaculture projects at a time when a large land-based fish farm is on the verge of getting final approvals.

The select board voted Wednesday night to hold a special town meeting and vote at 6 p.m., although they have not yet identified a location large enough for the gathering, said Irene Rogers, an assistant to the board.

The vote will come just weeks after Kingfish Maine received all state and federal permits to build a land-based facility to grow yellowtail kingfish on 93 acres on Dun Garvan Road. The company still needs one more approval before breaking ground — a building permit from the Jonesport Planning Board.

Kingfish operations manager Megan Sorby said the company met with the Planning Board in October, but the matter was tabled pending final state and federal permits. She said “it’s unclear” whether a moratorium will stop the project from moving forward.

“Our hope is the town sees that it’s purely being used as a delay tactic by people who don’t have the interest of the town at heart,” Sorby said.

Last year, Gouldsboro instituted a six-month moratorium on aquaculture development when a different company, American Aquafarms, was going through the process of getting its permits to build an in-water salmon farm in Frenchman Bay. The company hoped to use a Gouldsboro processing plant as its homebase.

In Jonesport, resident Anson Alley circulated the petition to get the signatures needed for a vote on the moratorium, according to documents on file with the town.

The moratorium takes direct aim at the Kingfish proposal, stating that “an aquaculture development has been proposed that would impact the land of and waters surrounding the Town of Jonesport” and that the project “may unreasonably interfere with traditional use of coastal waters for fisheries and recreation.”

If approved by voters, it would take effect immediately and be in effect for six months to give the town time to write ordinances to govern “commercial aquaculture facilities.” Alley could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Although it was not behind the Jonesport petition, project opponent Protect Downeast, a coalition of fishermen, clammers, wormers and residents, is supportive of the moratorium, spokeswoman Crystal Canney said.

“There are many people in town who are very concerned about this aquaculture project,” she said.

Kingfish, the American branch of the company owned by Kingfish Zeeland in the Netherlands, plans to build a land-based fish farm with structures that would total about 573,500 square feet. The recirculating aquaculture system would draw water from Chandler Bay, filter it for use in tanks and then discharge up to 29 million gallons per day of treated wastewater back into the bay.

Like other companies planning to start large fish farms in Maine — including Nordic Aquafarms in Belfast and Whole Oceans in Bucksport, both of which plan to grow salmon — Kingfish Maine is looking to tap into major nearby markets in Boston and New York.

A fourth project is on hold following a state Department of Marine Resources decision in April to terminate an application from American Aquafarms. That company wants to grow salmon in a closed net pen system in Frenchman Bay outside of Bar Harbor and process the fish in nearby Gouldsboro.

The state decided that the company had not identified an appropriate source for its fish eggs, a decision that the company has appealed in Cumberland County Superior Court.