WOBURN - Separate petitions for special permits from the Hess. Corp. and Cummings Properties highlight the agenda for the City Council when it meets on Tuesday (7:30 p.m.) at City Hall.

Hess is seeking to convert McSheffrey's Citgo station at the intersection of Montvale Avenue and Washington Street in East Woburn to a Hess station with a 2,200-square-foot "Hess Express" convenience store.

Hess is also asking for an increase in the number of pumps from the existing number of four, with eight filling positions, to six and 12, respectively.

Cummings Properties is seeking to allow research and testing as a by right use at a portion of its Trade Center 128 facility off Sylvan Road.

City officials - primarily the council and the Planning Board - have been reticent to allow such facilities without direct oversight, as Cummings Properties looks to expand its sphere of possible tenants for the campus, which is located off Route 128 near Stop & Shop.

The council's Special Permits Committee is scheduled to meet tonight (7 p.m.) to debate the petition and possibly issue a recommendation ahead of a vote at Tuesday's meeting.

There are five other public hearings scheduled for Tuesday's meeting.

Attorney John McElhiney has requested a continuance until the council's meeting on Jan. 20 for a petition to expand the Taste of Brazil restaurant at 414 Main St. in Woburn Center.

"There is now a question as to the exact area or proposed areas which will be covered by this special permit, and the petitioner would like an opportunity to work through those issues," wrote McElhiney, in a letter to the council.

The other four hearings are related to changes in the city's zoning code. There is a proposal to change the city's ordinances for window signs in commercial properties in the downtown section, to close what has been referred to as a loophole.

If the measure passes, signs covering more than 25 percent of a window would no longer be allowed. Currently, signs of a size greater than 25 percent of the window area are allowed as long as they are more than a few inches from the window itself.

Alderman Michael Raymond and Richard Gately have sponsored an ordinance change that would forego the requirement of obtaining a permit to repair or replace within 30 days a fence which is broken or damaged.

The proposal also limits the height of a fence to 42 inches within 16 feet of an intersection.

A vote could be forthcoming on a proposal from Alderman at-large Joanna Gonsalves regarding the city's affordable housing requirements.

The changes suggested by Gonsalves would incorporate pre-existing non-conforming uses to the ordinance that mandates any housing project of more than two units would have to set aside at least 10 percent of the units as affordable.

More discussion is expected on a proposal from Council President Charles Doherty to create a special overlay district in the Commerce Way area.

Doherty has said in the past he envisions an area with diverse uses, including residential, as the area is transformed from its mostly-industrial tenor.

Also, Tuesday's meeting with be the last as a council member for Ward 4 Alderman James Dwyer, who is expected to announce his resignation.

Dwyer will be inaugurated in January as the state representative from the 30th Middlesex district, which includes wards 2-6 in Woburn.