ST. GEORGE — The City of St. George took a major step toward building a new multi-use sports complex on Monday night, when the city council approved a new economic development district to fund the project.

The district will create a 55-acre tax boundary near the intersection of Antioch and Airline Highway to support the cost of building the facility.

St. George Mayor Dustin Yates says the city has lacked a facility for youth sports and wants as many educational and recreational opportunities as possible.

"We want to bring a civic center to St. George that has the opportunity to host all types of events from youth recreation events to High School graduations to small conferences and things like that," Yates said.

The council says the district will result in no new taxes for residents and that the only potential levy would apply to new businesses wanting to develop in the boundary.

"One thing that our public needs to know is we're not raising taxes outside of the boundary," Councilmember-at-Large David Dellucci said.

"The only potential levy that could happen here is a business tax essentially, so the businesses that have not yet opted into that geographic area. A hotel or a restaurant may have an additional levy for them, and all that does is help support the infrastructure development that we have to do before we even start construction," Yates said.

The actual tax rate for future businesses and hotels will be decided by the council at a later date.

The Mayor has spoken openly about how the complex could also draw charter school partners to the area.

"Having these recreational facilities on hand where students and children can access them is of paramount importance to bringing in the very best charter operators," Yates said.

Other schools in the parish could potentially be able to use the facilities.

"There's definitely going to be some uses all across the cases, but you're going to see some locals competing in sporting events in a facility that could come up here, but also you're going to see teams competing against outside of the parish teams," Visit Baton Rouge's Executive Vice President Laura Cating said.

The site will have to be made ready for construction, and Yates hopes the construction can begin soon.

"I would think that the earliest would be mid to probably third quarter of next year would be the best case scenario," Yates said.