Mayor

Mike Wheat's last Fayetteville City Council

meeting, set for Monday at 7 p.m., promises to be

a barn burner.

Wheat

declined to run for reelection Nov. 3 and will

leave office after nine years as mayor. He will

open the council's Jan. 3 meeting, but will then

turn the gavel over to Mayor-elect Kenneth Steele

following Steele's swearing in.

Council

will meet only once in December, cancelling its

third Monday meeting because it would interfere

with the Christmas holiday.

Fourteen

items are on the agenda for the Dec. 6 meeting.

Council will discuss those items in work session

tonight at 7 p.m.

Among

topics the group will discuss:

� A new zoning category that

would allow the intensive mixed use Village

development on the 110-acre former McElwaney

property, and Argonne Properties' request to

attach the new zoning to the property in

question.

Argonne's

plan for the property includes about 200 homes on

lots of varying sizes, plus a retail square, a

hotel/conference center, two office complexes and

a series of parks. City officials are hoping the

development will help revitalize Fayetteville's

downtown.

� A controversial proposed law

prohibiting the parking of semi trucks in

residential areas. The proposed law would exempt

residents who already park their big rigs at

home, but Councilman Walt White has proposed

additional restrictions on those

"grandfathered" residents.

� An ongoing discussion of the

city's law prohibiting fences in front yards, and

defining any yard facing a street as a front

yard. Newton Galloway is appealing the city

Planning Commission's denial of his request for

an exception to the law.

Both

his front yard and his back yard face streets, so

he can't fence off his back yard. And the

Planning Commission already is dealing with

similar requests in other subdivisions throughout

the city.

� A proposed new tree

protection and landscape ordinance. A citizens'

committee began studying the Planning

Commission's proposed new tree protection law

after developers warned that the law might be so

restrictive that they can't build at all. Council

agreed to appoint a committee and take more time

to study the proposal, but in the meantime

enacted a moratorium on new developments to

prevent further destruction of trees.

If

the new ordinance is enacted Monday, the

moratorium probably will be allowed to expire.

Otherwise, an additional item on Monday's agenda

is extending the moratorium.

� A public hearing on

suspension of beer and wine licenses throughout

the city. The suspensions are being considered in

the wake of a recent Police Department sting, in

which every store in the city that sells alcohol

was cited for selling to minors. (See related

story

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