HILLSBOROUGH -- The Hillsborough Town Board enacted a moratorium Tuesday night that temporarily halts a Durham company’s plans to build a controversial proposed asphalt plant here.

The unanimous decision to apply the temporary pause to Asphalt Experts owner Doug Robins’ request to build the plant on five acres along Valley Forge Road just east of town came after a public hearing on the matter and a unanimous recommendation from the planning board. The moratorium would run through the end of the year, but could be extended for up to six months.

"I do personally fear that the vote tonight was a reflection of hostility toward business in Hillsborough, in particular, manufacturing," said Robins’ attorney, Gray Styers, after the vote at Town Barn.

During the public hearing, Styers compared the moratorium to playing the basketball game, "HORSE," with his 10-year-old son and suddenly changing the rules of the game when he was near elimination at "S."

"It’s not right to change the rules in the middle of the game," Styers said.

But resident Barrie Wallace said that she would stop her son from playing a game if she saw it could be dangerous.

"I wish that [the asphalt proposal] were a game of HORSE," she said. "That would be so much easier than what we’re dealing with here."

The five-member Board of Adjustment, which has met three times and heard about 12 hours of sworn testimony, was scheduled to continue its hearing on Robins’ request April 30. That meeting will no longer take place.

Robins said his company was a "small mom and pop operation" that did not intend to harm the environment and has simply been misunderstood.

"I just want to build a small plant," he said. "I don’t want to scare anybody. It is not the monster that some people think it is."

But Orange County Attorney Geof Gledhill said there was too much unknown about the operation, including the type of equipment that would be used.

Gledhill read a resolution from the County Commissioners in support of the moratorium, which halts all manufacturing and processing facilities that use petroleum products.

Orange County opposes the plant because it would be about 100 feet away from county-owned land that houses Orange Enterprises, a nonprofit that provides vocational jobs and training to residents with disabilities.

Robins promised to work with town officials if given the chance. But Gledhill countered that "some scoundrel" could take over the plant in the future since permits aren’t granted to individuals.

Robins said he was open to discussions with town officials to work out any issues.

"Please let’s have this dialogue," he said.

Several town officials, however, viewed the moratorium as an opportunity to engage in such a dialogue.

"It’s a lot of unknowns," said Town Board member Frances Dancy, who made the motion to enact the moratorium. "I just am not comfortable with unknowns. ... It’s just too much uncertainty."

The moratorium will give the planning board time to possibly amend the town’s zoning ordinance to address some issues surrounding asphalt plants and how they are reviewed.