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A hotly-disputed neighborhood-preservation zoning overlay will be back in front of the City Council today — after undergoing another transformation from previous plans.

This time City Council hopes it has threaded the needle to make two competing interests happy — developers who want to build minidorm-type structures for college students and neighborhood homeowners who don't want older houses torn down and replaced with bigger structures that don't fit architecturally with the area.

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, who authored the latest compromise, said she felt several meetings involving both sides along with the University of Arizona went a long way toward bridging the gap.

"It's a good step at both addressing the need for protection for neighborhoods and the need to be proactive with infill development," Uhlich said.

If approved today, the measure would immediately allow 22 neighborhoods around the university that are either designated historical or are eligible for historical designation to "opt-in" to the pilot overlay program and begin creating a neighborhood preservation zone tailored for their neighborhood.

City officials expect the Jefferson Park Neighborhood and Feldman's Neighborhood to immediately join.

An overlay zone could impose restrictions on such things as building height, setbacks or lot sizes that are more stringent than would normally be allowed. The exact restrictions would be up to a majority of each area's property owners, but they would have to be in character with the area.

City Manager Mike Hein said the city needs to figure out exactly how neighborhoods will opt in to the overlay zones.

Originally, the city envisioned creating protective overlay zones if 25 percent of the property owners in a particular area petitioned for it. The petition would start a process that would include several public hearings, with neighborhoods having to justify any new restrictions and the final decision resting with the City Council.

But the 25 percent petition concept became a focus for criticism from those who portrayed it as a minority imposing its will on a majority.

Uhlich said she hopes the neighborhoods would opt in by votes of their neighborhood associations.

At the same time it considers the pilot overlays, the council will approve a plan to identify areas along major streets or the planned modern streetcar line that can be zoned for more intense development and bigger minidorms. Minidorms usually occur when a house is replaced with another that is usually larger, often taller and has more bedrooms.

Minidorms typically mean more people, more cars and more noise for neighbors because the tenants are often college students who keep later hours than a typical family.

Uhlich said the areas to be designated for more intense development are "an acknowledgement there is infill needed ... to address the need for student housing."

"In many respects it is an acknowledgement of the reality we face," Uhlich said, adding developers often ask "if you don't want me to build here, tell me where."

Uhlich said it's very important to do the pilot overlays and the more intense zoning at the same time so minidorm developers don't leapfrog into neighborhoods farther away from the university simply to avoid regulations.

Hein said the issue comes down to developers giving up some development rights in neighborhoods to get more developments rights in the corridors the city earmarks for more intensive development.

"It's a very complicated issue; there's no silver bullet," Hein said. "We need carrots. We need sticks."

Developer Richard Studwell said he was in favor of the new rules, adding "I think it's going to work out very well." He said he agrees with the trade-offs to have the minidorms blend in architecturally with neighborhoods to allow for more intensive developments along bigger streets.

"The key here has to be a balance," Studwell said.

But Jefferson Park resident Bob Schlanger said he wasn't sure how the new neighborhood protection zones would work. He said the reason the developers are happy is they have been assured "we will find places for them to do their thing."

But he said he's unsure how it will work for neighborhoods. He said he was sure Jefferson Park would move immediately after the vote to create a neighborhood preservation zone there.

"There's a million unanswered questions," Schlanger said. "I'm not sure exactly how this will play out."