After months of discussions, debates and late night-meetings, the Senoia City Council on Monday night approved the first read of its new zoning ordinances and maps.

For more than a year, the city's Planning Commission has gone over the ordinances with a fine tooth comb to try and ensure the city is prepared to deal with the growth wave that is sweeping through the rest of Coweta County.

The council is expected to approve the second read of the ordinances and maps this Monday night. The approval will come just as the city's nearly 18-month moratorium on development is lifted at midnight on Monday.

During the last month, the city has conducted a number of public hearings on the maps and ordinance and came under fire from the town's business community for attempting to create a historic town center zoning category that would curtail some commercial uses.

During Monday's meeting, attorney George Rosenzweig, who represented many of the town's business leaders, asked the council to consider leaving two parcels of property in their current zoning categories.

The first are he addressed was a 50 plus-acre site, just off Pylant Street owned by David Johnson. The tract is zoned residential, but the Planning Commission wanted it denoted parks and recreation on the future land use map.

The second tract is a much smaller piece of property on Ga. Highway 16 owned by Beverly Waters. The property is zoned commercial, but the Planning Commission wanted it zoned residential, because they believe the future of land on the highway is not necessarily commercial.

Planning Commission Chairman Darlene Stanley told the large crowd the future land use map is not zoning, but rather a guide to be used.

"It's a generalization of what we'd like to see," she said.

But in the end, the City Council rejected many of the commission's recommendations and supported many of the business leader's requests.

The historic town center category was eliminated, along with keeping the current zonings for the Waters and Johnson property. The council also agreed that two tracts owned by businessman Jimmy Hutchinson should remain commercial, instead of being placed as residential on the future land use map.

In return for the concessions granted the business leaders, the city received begrudging support from the businessman for the creation of a historic preservation ordinance and committee that would oversee the ordinance.

The Council wants to make sure the exterior of many of the city's historic buildings are maintained and will propose the first draft of an ordinance at this Monday's meeting.