Fayetteville City Council is expected to formally approve its new comprehensive plan and end a 10-month moratorium on rezoning activity during its regular business meeting Monday at 7:30 p.m.

Council members will discuss their agenda for Monday's meeting tonight during a workshop meeting, also at 7:30 at City Hall.

The moratorium was enacted to give the city planning staff time to rewrite the comprehensive plan.

City Council must enact a resolution formally ending the moratorium before rezoning applications can be taken, and city attorney David Winkle advised the council not to end the moratorium until it has formally adopted the new land use plan and land use map as part of the comprehensive plan.

Those documents currently are awaiting Atlanta Regional Commission approval, which might take months, but Winkle said the new plan must be in place, or else applicants might seek legal redress if a rezoning is rejected based on the new plan. The previous land use plan would govern such decisions, he said.

"The problem is we have applications coming in and we don't have any way of dealing with them," said Mayor Mike Wheat during a recent discussion of the plan. "We've had some people that have been waiting for ten months and it's costing them money... and we're unanimous in supporting this land use map," he added.

Council members said they're comfortable going ahead and approving the land use plan at Monday's meeting without waiting for ARC approval. ARC's suggestions are not binding, said Councilman Walt White. "I'm committed to this plan," he added.

Also on the agenda tonight and Monday:

A set of new procedures to review the performance of city employees.

Merit pay increases hinge on the performance review, but city Fire Chief Alan Jones said the current review process often rewards mediocre and excellent performance at the same level.

Jones was head of a staff committee that studied the current system and devised a new system designed to make it tougher to get the top raises. In addition to cost of living increases, employees are eligible for up to 5 percent in merit increases each year.

"This is a better system to separate below average and above average performance," he said of the proposed new plan.

A new franchise agreement with Atlanta Gas Light Company. Council recently approved a new franchise agreement, but city attorney Winkle said the agreement must be rewritten to accommodate recent deregulation of the natural gas industry.

Franchise fees will now be based upon the volume of gas running through lines in Fayetteville. Under the current franchise agreement, the fees were based upon the number of customers being served, but with deregulation that number will be zero. Atlanta Gas Light will provide gas at wholesale, and several new companies will compete to carry that service to individual customers.