CHAPEL HILL - The Town Council on Monday could begin to resolve the debate over dense development that stalled a Methodist student organization's expansion plans last week.

The council had already revised its Residential Special Standards Conditional (RSSC) zoning district to let Ram Development Co. build nearly 350 condos on the current site of the Town House Apartments off Hillsborough Street.

The council liked that project because it will bring many new residents within walking distance of downtown. But the council didn't apply the same rationale when considering the Wesley Foundation's request to replace its two-story student center on Pittsboro Street with a 148-bed dormitory and activity center for Methodist students.

On Monday, the council will revisit its discussion of where to allow the RSSC's high-density development. Members have already indicated they're not inclined to expand it beyond the downtown area.

"I'm not willing to go beyond that until the citizens and the council have had some discussion," said Mayor Kevin Foy, who will soon convene a Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force to gather citizen input.

The four-story, 70,000-square-foot Wesley project, with its location near the intersection of Pittsboro Street and Cameron Avenue, appeared to fit into the council's plans for more foot traffic downtown.

"This doesn't seem incongruent with this intersection," council member Mark Kleinschmidt said.

The problem, he and others said, is that no existing zoning designation seemed a good fit for the Wesley site.

"I'd just urge you to consider this council's attempts to craft a new zone over the last several years, and we still don't have one of those," Kleinschmidt told Wesley representatives. He was referring to the ongoing debate on whether to employ the RSSC zone to areas around "neighborhood commercial centers" such as Eastgate or Meadowmont. "I don't think there are even odds that this council could come up with a zone that's appropriate," he said.

Off and on for more than two years, the council has been discussing whether the town should let developer Carol Ann Zinn build 58 condos on 5.8 acres near Meadowmont. After voting on where to allow the RSSC zone Monday, council members probably won't be able to vote on Zinn's plan because, as with the Wesley Foundation, they won't have an appropriate zone. Council members implicitly warned the Wesley Foundation not to pursue their plans amid all the contention.

Council member Jim Ward conceded the Wesley proposal seems like a good fit, given the tall buildings already lining the other side of Pittsboro Street, but said it's unlikely to get approval.

"The atmosphere is colored by a lot of other things going on in this community about density," said Ward. "I don't think there's a chance in the world that this is going to make it ... ."

Council members said they might be open to upzoning the Wesleyans' 0.9-acre lot to a higher level of its existing office/institutional zone, OI-3, to accommodate about 23,000 square feet of building but not 70,000. The existing two-story building is about 9,500 square feet.

"There really isn't an appropriate zoning district for this piece of property," said town development manager Gene Poveromo.

Even Ram's RSSC zone would allow only about 40,000 square feet of building. The only zones that might allow the Wesley Plan -- Town Center and Office/Institutional 4 -- don't seem appropriate in the council's eyes. Town Center wouldn't allow much more than the 70,000 square feet, and OI-4, which governs UNC's main campus, would allow unlimited square footage.

No adjacent property is zoned Town Center, and council member Bill Strom said the town negotiated the rules for OI-4 with the understanding it would be limited to the main campus. Council members don't want to open the door for these intense zones to neighboring properties closer to the Cameron-McCauley Historic District, but neither do they want to craft a special zone just for the Wesley project, at least not before the visioning task force completes its work.

"It's our practice as a community for the last decade to just allow there to be an underzoning throughout the entire town and require upzoning requests with every application," Kleinschmidt said. "I'm generally dissatisfied with the way we do rezonings as it is. ... I'm not convinced that we have the right tools available now."

IF YOU GO

The Chapel Hill Town Council meets at 7 p.m. Monday in Chapel Hill Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

In addition, the agenda includes the continuation of a public hearing on whether to ban or limit dog-tethering beyond the current rules, which allow chains as short as 10 feet as long as they're on runs or swivels to prevent choking.