The Summit Fremaux project took another step forward Tuesday night when the Slidell City Council, meeting first as the Fremaux Economic Development District, approved several ordinances that set the mechanism in motion to issue bonds and levy a sales and hotel occupancy taxes within the FEDD.

During the regular City Council meeting, an ordinance ratifying the 1 percent increase in sales tax within the FEDD passed 8-0 vote with Councilman Richard Hursey absent from the meeting.

The increased sales tax will only apply to goods and services sold within the FEDD, and will be used to pay for infrastructure construction and debt service on the bonds. The FEDD was created by the council last month after approval for Slidell Development Co. LLC and Bayer Properties to turn 400 acres of land bordering the west side of Interstate 10 between Old Spanish Trail and Fremaux Avenue into a combination retail, housing and office complex as well as letting the University of New Orleans build a Northshore campus and tech park.

The estimated $1 billion project is expected to start in early May and be finished sometime in 2010.

Funding for the project will come from $350 million in Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds that the federal government established to help the area rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The city will also issue $25 million bonds, for which Slidell Development Co., will be obligated in order to pay for sewers, streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure needs.

The 1 percent sales and hotel occupancy taxes within the FEDD will be collected by the city and will go to paying for the construction of the project and to repaying the bond debt. Bayer Properties will be solely responsible for the debt, and the city of Slidell will not be held liable in case of default.

That was ensured when the council also passed an amended ordinance establishing the cooperative agreement between the city and the Slidell Development Co. LLC. The original ordinance called for the creation of the Industrial Development Board of Slidell, which would oversee the FEDD. The amendment deleted the creation of a new board. City Attorney Tim Mathison said there was no need to create another level of bureaucracy for the project, plus it would further insulate the city from investors in the project.

Earlier, at the first meeting of the FEDD, which is the entire council, council members passed a resolution establishing the officers of the FEDD, which are the officers of the Slidell City Council.

The FEDD also introduced by an 8-0 vote a proposed ordinance giving the FEDD the authority to hire the legal firm of Adams and Reese LLP to handle the issuance of $25 million in bonds.

The other ordinance introduced allows the FEDD governing body to apply to the state to issue the bonds. Both ordinances will have a public hearing at 6 p.m. May 27 at the next meeting of the FEDD in City Council Chambers on Bayou Lane.

When the project is completed, Summit Fremaux will boast an “open-air” high-scale shopping area with Dillard’s and Belk’s department stores, Barnes and Noble Booksellers, a 14-screen movie theater, as well as various other shops, boutiques and restaurants. There will also be a hotel, office buildings as well as condominiums and single-family houses. All of this will be connected by a boulevard that will stretch from Old Spanish Trail to the new I-10 interchange at Fremaux Avenue, which is slated to open sometime this summer.