The state Coastal Resources Management Council has delayed a vote on expanding aquaculture in Winnapaug Pond.

The council is considering an application from shellfish farmer Jeffrey Gardner to add 3 acres to his commercial operation. Some of his neighbors oppose the plan.

Instead of voting on the application, which according to aquaculture coordinator David Alves has met all the requirements for approval, the coastal council voted to continue the hearing until after Gardner has met with neighbors and other opponents.

“The council felt like this might be a good opportunity to sit down, discuss it, come to an understanding of some of the issues and maybe make changes,” council spokeswoman Laura Ricketson-Dwyer said.

“There are things that can be worked out,” Gardner said last night. He traded phone numbers and e-mail addresses with objectors outside Tuesday night’s meeting in Providence.

“We’ll meet at somebody’s house,” he said, “and look at a map.” He has a 4-foot-by-5-foot aerial survey map of the pond that he and objectors were using during their 45-minute discussion in the hall.

Neighbors whose objections have been noted by the council cite the “visible blight” of a commercial fishery, especially when low tides expose the cages on which shellfish grow; the restrictions on recreational use of the pond especially for sailboating and windsurfing at that end; and the disparity between the high prices and taxes they have paid for prime waterfront property and the $100 an acre that Gardner would pay to lease the water rights.

The state Department of Environmental Management has noted that filter feeding by shellfish might improve water quality in the pond, but the DEM’s director has asked the council not to approve a lease until statewide aquaculture rules are in place.

The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association, whose board believes aquaculture can coexist with the 6,000 recreational anglers it represents, has registered a concern that “the same areas desired for aquaculture leases are those deemed as fish spawning and nursery areas.” It, too, wants to see an upper limit placed on aquaculture development.

Gardner, who has lived on the pond for 28 years and farmed it for 14 years, intends to keep following due process. “I’m going to continue my lease application through the channels open to me,” he said.

dnaylor@projo.com