Fayetteville's

property tax rate has been set at 3.22 mills, meaning there will not be

a millage increase in the city for the upcoming fiscal year.

The City Council

conducted the last of three required public hearings before last week's

work session, because a 5.5 percent rise in assessments has led to a tax

increase even though the tax rate is not going up.

The rates are

broken down into 2.47 mills for the general fund and .75 mills for capital

projects. City officials pointed out the steady decrease from the 1993

millage, which was 5.98.

A mill is one

dollar per thousand dollars of a home's assessed value. Assessed value

is 40 percent of market value minus any exemptions.

In other business,

the council will convene tomorrow night at 7:30 at City Hall for its regular

meeting. Four public hearings are on the agenda.

The first is

to allow Fayette County to conduct the city's election this fall, as it

has done for years. Three City Council seats were to be up for grabs in

the Nov. 6 election, but only one is contested. Larry Dell and Al Hovey-King

are unopposed and will return to their seats, while Walt White faces challenger

Lee Hunt in the at-large election.

A rezoning

request for a portion of Fayette Promenade is set for a first reading

this week. Marvin Isenberg is asking that 24.352 acres on the eastern

edge of the property, behind the Fayette Promenade (Kinko's) shopping

center across Ga. Highway 85 from Fayette Pavilion, be rezoned to allow

94 town home units and 43,600 square feet of offices.

A memo from

city staff stated that the city's land use plan anticipates business park

uses for the site, which is next to single-family detached residential

property on the south, agricultural-residential land to the north, a flood

plain to the east and the existing shopping center to the west.

Staff recommended

denial of the request because of its incompatibility with the land use

plan and because the city's comprehensive plan seeks to have high-density

residential and multifamily residential property only in the downtown

area.

The Planning

and Zoning Commission also recommended denial.

Timothy Breyne

is requesting rezoning to C-2 commercial for about 1.1 acres on the east

side of Jeff Davis, about 200 feet south of Stonewall Avenue. The Planning

and Zoning Commission recommended C-1 zoning, a less intensive commercial

category, as did city staff, to meet the land use plan, provided a specific

use for the property is identified. In the past, the city has not rezoned

property without a specific tenant or use being identified, according

to staff.

Breyne told

the council at the work session that one possible tenant is an ambulance

service, but it would be a non-emergency medical transport without sirens

and similar tools, although it would operate at the office 24 hours a

day.