Fayetteville property owners, your city tax bill is about to go — down?

That’s not a typo: The Fayetteville City Council is expected to hold the 2009 millage rate steady at 2.988 mills when it meets Thursday night. The rate represents a net decrease in projected taxes of .78 percent, or $21,855, reflecting the impact of the recession.

The millage presentation by Finance Director Lynn Robinson will show that net taxes levied for 2008 totaled $2,791,010 compared to the $2,769,154 for 2009. City financial staff are recommending the rate, noting that it will meet the requirement of the projected FY 2010 budget.

Fayetteville has been trimming the budget for nearly two years in an effort to minimize the economic impact of the recession.

If approved, the general fund millage rate will total 2.238 mills while the capital projects fund will total .75 mills. The reassessment portion of the tax digest is equivalent to minus 0.32 mills, Robinson said.

The 2009 figures for net taxes stood in stark contrast to the previous years outlined in the five-year tax digest where net taxes increased by 3.94 percent in 2008 and by 13.10 percent in 2004. Similarly, the gross tax digest grew significantly over the same period until 2009. In 2007 the gross digest was tallied at $703.6 million and by 2008 it had risen to $935.9 million. The digest totaled $928.1 million in 2009.

Also at the meeting, the council will take up discussion of an Atlanta Regional Commission Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) supplemental grant program that was tabled at the last meeting.

Staff are requesting that the city put up half of the money that would provide a total of $60,000 to purchase studies and analysis that would address several older commercial “grayfield” areas for potential re-development.

“LCI supplemental funding will be used to hire professional land development and marketing consultants as necessary to devise a strategy and development plan to revitalize these important grayfield areas,” said Planning and Zoning Director Eldridge Gunn.

The projects targeted for the LCI study are the 692 Shopping Center on North Glynn Street, the Fayette Place Shopping Center at the 300 block of North Glynn and an underutilized area of the Market Place at Lafayette that is a part of the Villages at Lafayette master plan.

Gunn said that revitalization of the centers would serve as a catalyst for reviving the entire LCI area.

“Development of these sites can be less expensive for the developer and more cost effective for providing city services because the infrastructure is already in place,” Gunn said. “It will allow the value of the property to rise significantly, provide jobs and increase taxable income for the city.”