The Fayetteville City Council left its decision about zoning districts and a map for the Downtown Master Plan area on second reading Tuesday night after turning down an amendment to make a change of zoning for a portion of that area.

The proposed zoning for a group of properties in the area stayed classified as Downtown General after an amendment to the Fayetteville City Council failed 4-3.

The amendment, proposed by Ward 1 Alderman Brenda Thiel, would have changed the proposed zoning of an area near, but not including, the Ice House.

The council was presented not only with conflicting opinions about that proposal; but also with differing statements of fact.

People on both side of the debate urged council members to be logical, to be fair and to stick to the ideals and concepts of the plan created by consultant Dover, Kohl & Partners.

They just didn’t agree on what those were and how to do that. They didn’t even agree on whether the area was mostly residential or mostly commercial.

Developer and property owner Rick Alexander presented petitions to the council to return the area to the Main Street Center designation. He said that within the past week he had confirmed with the majority of the property owners in the area that was their wish.

Paula Marinoni, who wanted the area to stay Downtown General, told aldermen they should ask themselves if they cared if Fayetteville gets wiped out.

Alexander said the majority of the area in question is commercial and industrial and has been for many years. The majority of the buildings are not single-family residences, he said.

Cyrus Young said the majority of the property is residential.

“ When you people are campaigning, you always talk about protecting the neighborhoods. This is your opportunity, ” he said.

Jack Dunn, who agreed with Alexander, argued, “ I would say if you don’t make that Main Street Center, you are endangering the neighborhood. ”

The only residential structures are rent houses, Mark Risk told the council. He said it has been commercial industrial for decades and it is unfair to restrict it with downzoning.

Those in favor of the Downtown General designation said that was already a compromise from Neighborhood Conservation.

Alexander said the property owners had already compromised when they didn’t fight a six-story height limit.

As a Commercial 3 zoning area, the area had no height limit. As Main Street Center, there would be a six-story limit, and as Downtown General, it would have a four-story limit.

The area in question has been identified as both as Downtown General and Main Street Center at various steps during the process of working to define the Downtown Master Plan zoning.

Developer Greg House said he objected to further erosion in height limits to keep the area “ supposedly cute. ”

He said he would not have rehabilitated the old Frisco train depot if he had known the north half of the lot would be limited to four stories.

By changing the material nature of its decisions, the council makes it hard for developers to make plans, House said.

But Irene Pritchard said the council should think about solid blocks of color when defining the proposed zoning map boundaries and consider the overall need, not decide parcel by parcel.

Steve Rust, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council, said the tradeoff facing the council was between density and urban sprawl.

Julie Dorrough heard the issue as being between commercialism and cute, but to her the main issue was height, character diversity of the downtown and quality of life.

Aldermen Kyle Cook, Shirley Lucas, Robert “ Swifty ” Reynolds and Lioneld Jordan voted against Thiel’s amendment.

The 4-3 vote retained Downtown General as the proposed zoning for the area in question.

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