Georgetown City Council approved the city’s Transit Development Plan at its Tuesday meeting with a 4-2 vote. Council Members Tommy Gonzalez and John Hesser voted against the plan and Council Member Ty Gipson was absent.

The plan, which includes the proposed fixed-route bus system, was developed through an interlocal agreement between the city and Capital Metro—the Austin Urbanized Area designated recipient of federal transit funding.

Georgetown was included in the AUA as a result of the 2010 census. Because of the designation, city transit planning and funding is completed through Capital Metro, said Michelle Meaux, Capital Metro regional coordination planner.

During the council’s workshop session Tuesday, council members also directed city staff to continue studying how the city could implement a voucher program with transportation network companies, TNCs, such as Uber and Lyft, to complement the city’s fixed-route system.

“I think it would be helpful [for] council to know what there options are in respect to vouchers,” Mayor Dale Ross said. “I think we need to know more about what would that [voucher program] would look like.”

The fixed-route bus plan includes four proposed routes that would connect at a transit center near the Georgetown Public Library on Eighth Street, Georgetown Transportation Analyst Nat Waggoner said. The plan also includes continuing paratransit service for individuals with disabilities.

Waggoner said the city would take the next year to fully develop the fixed-route system, including gathering public input on the proposed routes and stop locations. The bus system is expected to launch in August 2017 with the start of school, he said.

The city will also develop a transit working group, which would serve as a steering committee and could include representatives from Capital Metro, the Capital Area Rural Transportation System, GHF and Faith in Action Georgetown, Waggoner said. The group would meet quarterly to evaluate the system on performance measures adopted by the council, he said.

The council also approved an agreement with Georgetown Health Foundation—a grant-making organization working to promote sustainable community health initiatives in Georgetown—which proposed an agreement with the city that includes up to $200,000 a year for three years to help fund the system’s operational costs, Waggoner said.

“In ordinary times I would be opposed to pressing forward with fixed-route system,” Council Member Steve Fought said. “However, we have the Georgetown Health Foundation willing to put $200,000 a year for three years on it to, as they say, be able to support their clients and Lone Star Circle of Care and others. … I think I would be almost irresponsible if I ignored [the people on the GHF and LSCC boards] opinions or their contribution. That greatly sways my mind on this.”

Fought said establishing the performance measures helped change his mind about moving forward with the fixed-route system.

“That takes care of it for me,” he said. “I’m willing to go against the way I would normally would have voted because of the advice of people I respect and also the fact that we have a buffer in there that says we are going to see how we do going forward. … I think [city staff has] done good work and think you ought to press ahead with fixed-route bus [service] and the voucher system.”

Other Council members, including Gonzalez and Hesser, said moving forward with a fixed-route bus system now was premature.

“Once you invest in the infrastructure and start the progress, it’s very hard to get out of it,” Gonzalez said, adding that the routes do not benefit his constituency in District 7 on the city’s southeast side and he would rather spend the money on sidewalk and road improvements. “I don’t think we’re ready for a fixed-route system. We don’t have the population [density to support it].”

City Manager David Morgan said the council could re-evaluate its agreement with Capital Metro for the bus system after the first full-year of service.

The fixed-route bus system and paratransit service will cost the city about $248,000 in Fiscal Year 2016-17. Additional funding would come from Federal Transit Administration funding, which can change based on population and density as the city grows. Waggoner said there was also the potential for the city to earn revenue through advertising.

The city and Capital Metro have been developing the transit plan since November 2014.