Get there early and be prepared to stay late.

In what promises to be a marathon meeting, the Senoia City Council is expected to conduct the first reading on the city's new zoning ordinances, land use map and zoning map at a called meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m.

For more than a year, the city's Planning Commission has combed through current zoning ordinances and made proposed changes.

When the changes were unveiled last month, the town's business community went up in arms over changing the zoning of the town's commercial heart from a the general commercial category to historic town center.

The new historic town center classification would limit the types of commercial uses, which concerned the business leaders.

They offered a compromise: If the city agreed to leave the current zoning in place, the business owners would agree to a historical review committee that would oversee any physical changes to the exteriors of the buildings.

During public hearings last month, the council also attempted to erase any fears the residents had about the new regulations. Many residents thought the city would be dictating paint colors and telling them what they could do with their property, but the Planning Commission said that was not their intent.

"We're trying to protect the future of the city," said chairman Darlene Stanley.