The American Canyon City Council has a chance to draw the line.

On Tuesday, city leaders are expected to decide whether to adopt an urban limit line, which would serve as the city’s boundary for at least 22 years, or allow an initiative detailing the proposed boundaries to go to city voters.

Under a landmark agreement signed last month between the city and Napa County, the initiative — which more than 1,800 residents signed in July — must either be placed on the November ballot or be adopted as law by the city council no later than Aug. 8.

The city’s urban boundaries have been a topic of dispute for years. The July agreement between city and county leaders seeks to resolve this matter, as well as related disagreements over water service near the county-controlled Napa County Airport, industrial growth within the city and who bears the financial responsibility for improving and extending Devlin Road.

The deal was reached after 18 months of sometimes fractious discussions between city and county officials.

The boundary allows the city to annex lands north of the current city limit on Green Island Road, but only if it is developed exclusively for industrial purposes.

The new boundary also includes substantial property east of the currently developed part of the city, much of it pre-zoned to serve as the Town Center, a residential, commercial and public square development at the site of a basalt plant that operated in the early 1900s.

The Napa County Election Department certified the initiative in mid-July after determining that at least 10 percent of the 7,200 registered voters in American Canyon had signed the petition.

On Friday, American Canyon City Manager Rich Ramirez said he recommends that the city council adopt the initiative Tuesday.

“It will immediately implement the  MOU,” he said, referring to the memorandum of understanding that compels the county to build the Devlin Road extension, the city to provide water to users near the Napa County Airport and addresses other city-county issues.

City Councilmen Don Callison and Ed West, who led efforts to negotiate an agreement with Napa County, said they first wanted to read the city staff report and listen to community comments before deciding whether or not the initiative should be on the November ballot.

Mark Joseph, the former city manager, heads Impact 94503, a grass-roots group of a dozen residents who support the Town Center development. The group spearheaded efforts to collect signatures for the initiative while McGrath Properties, the Oakland-based developer of the Town Center, paid for legal work to prepare the initiative.

Joseph favors having the council approve the initiative Tuesday. He agreed with Ramirez, his successor as city manager, that it would be beneficial to put the city-county agreement into effect immediately. He also said the fact that so many residents so quickly signed the petition is a solid indication that the people of American Canyon overwhelmingly favor the urban limit line.

Simply having the council pass it into law, he said, “is the most practical thing to do.”

Pam Wilkinson, the American Canyon Chamber of Commerce’s president and chief executive officer, said the chamber supports the city implementing the measure.

But Paulette Freskan-Griffin, a community activist who grew up in American Canyon, last week said that people who signed the petition were not necessarily supporting the urban limit line. Instead, they were only supporting the idea of putting it on the ballot.

Freskan-Griffin said the city does not need more residential development, like the homes proposed in the Town Center, and saw no benefit to agreeing to precise boundaries on the edge of town.

Impact 94503 has formed a political committee, the Citizens for American Canyon’s Future, which is supported by McGrath Properties American Canyon.

The group spent $35,000 on the initiative, according to campaign finance reports on file at American Canyon City Hall.