To provide the public with more information about the controversial General Business District Overlay plan, Murrysville Council has decided to hold an informational town hall meeting Wednesday.

The meeting, scheduled from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Franklin Regional High School auditorium, will be a forum for residents to raise specific questions about the overlay and have their concerns addressed by council members and staff.

Many residents have expressed opposition to the overlay plan, which, if approved, would allow certain properties currently zoned residential to be used for specific kinds of commercial development.

They've also criticized council for failing to properly explain the fine print of the proposal to the public, and some have accused certain council members of putting the interests of developers above those of their constituents.

Last month, council tabled a motion to approve the overlay plan until its July 16 meeting. At that meeting, the motion was again tabled until the body's Aug. 6 session to allow for the town hall meeting.

Spectators were few at last week's meeting, but a core group of citizens who have opposed the overlay plan since the beginning kept dutiful watch over council's proceedings.

In an amicable exchange with one citizen, council Vice President Lawrence Nicolette admitted that council should have done more to educate residents about the plan.

"My apologies," he said. "I'm going to blame this on ignorance, not arrogance. I thought we were doing a better job of communicating this. I was wrong."

Jerome Wolf, a staunch opponent of commercial development who helped form the group Citizens for the Preservation of Rural Murrysville, said he was pleased that council agreed to the town hall meeting.

"I think we should have had something like this early on," he said. "There are some issues with the overlay we don't understand, and if we do get the answers that we think we'd like to hear, then it will get more support. If we don't, then it might go the other way."

Mr. Wolf also said that even though CPRM has retained Greensburg attorney Michael E. DeMatt to represent its membership before council, at present there are no plans to pursue further legal action.

Murrysville Mayor Joyce Somers and chief administrator John Barrett proposed a slightly different plan for reaching out to the public at last week's meeting, but that plan was passed over in favor of the town hall meeting.

The mayor's plan called for a series of sessions that would be open to about 25 citizens at a time at various times throughout the day. In these small sessions, residents could ask specific questions and get detailed, personalized answers from Mr. Barrett and director of community development Chris Rearick.

"We would document questions and try to answer them as best we could, and report back to council about what the nature of those discussions were," Mr. Barrett said. "It might give [council] a better opportunity to get a handle on what the uncertainties are with the ordinance and how we'd address them."

Councilman Dennis Pavlik raised concerns over the small workshops and said the format could lead to more misinformation.

"Whenever you get 25 people in a room and you answer a question and they walk out of that room, people have different views of what that actual answer was," he said. "I'm just looking at the rumor consequences. It may start more fires than it stops."

Referring to the sometimes heated and angry rumor-based comments council has heard from residents, Mr. Pavlik added: "I've seen the tar barrels out back."

To which council President Nancy Kacin responded: "As long as they're not building a noose."