SMITHFIELD -- The Smithfield Town Council was briefly at a loss for action Tuesday night on a controversial plan to expand its planning jurisdiction to two miles beyond the town limits.

With Bill Jordan dissenting, the council voted 6-1 to expand the extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, to two miles from one. The move gives the town planning and zoning authority in the broader area beyond its borders. Unlike in an annexation, residents won’t receive most town services or pay its taxes.

A standing-room-only crowd of affected property owners filled the council chambers for a public hearing on the proposal, and of the 20 people who spoke, none supported the move. Many were concerned about how the move might affect the future of their farms, and others saw annexation of their land on the horizon.

“This change is actually one of the steps in annexation,” said Joseph Avery, who lives on Barbour Road west of Smithfield, where he said his ancestors once worked the land as slaves. “We don’t want to be annexed -- next month, next year or in five years.”

Town officials downplayed the annexation concern.

“It may never be taxed; it may never be annexed,” Town Attorney Bob Spence Jr. said, eliciting mutters of disbelief from the crowd.

Read more in next week’s edition of The Herald.