Del Valle will have a permanent fire station in two years, the Travis Country neighborhood will have a station in three years and the other three areas suffering from the service shortage will receive stations by 2023 following Austin City Council action on Thursday.

City Council first learned of Austin’s shortage of five fire stations in 2015. A 2016 analysis showed response times to Del Valle, Travis Country, Goodnight Ranch, Davenport Ranch and Canyon Creek ranged between roughly 12 and 17 minutes—much higher than the national standard of eight minutes and the citywide average of nine minutes and four seconds.

However, after learning Del Valle’s distance from a fire station led to higher insurance premiums for area residents, council revisited the issue. City staff initially estimated a 10-year timeline to construct the five stations. But lawmakers, led by District 2 Council Member Delia Garza demanded a more aggressive timeline.

On Thursday, City Council unanimously approved an updated five-year timeline, with permanent stations coming to Del Valle in two years and three years for Travis Country, where fire trucks responded to 1,870 calls last year—the lion’s share of which were medical emergencies.

City Council was considering placing more immediate temporary stations on the sites while staff figured out a construction plan. However, Garza said the difference between a temporary and permanent station was only six months.

Construction for Del Valle’s station will begin in 12 months and reach completion in June 2020. For Travis Country, the city needs to first purchase land, which could extend the timeline up to a year. Construction is expected to being in 2020 and finish in June 2021. In a report to City Council, city staff noted the timeline was aggressive.

Davenport Ranch is slated for completion by March 2022; Goodnight Ranch for November 2022 and Canyon Creek for July 2023.

“I’m very grateful that staff has committed to this aggressive timeline to get permanent stations to these communities,” Garza said.

Garza said she hopes the Del Valle station will be up in, “two years from today,” but that city leaders will monitor the process and uphold the timeline. Garza mentioned in the meantime, the city might work with the state to gain access to the use of the SH-130 toll road to expedite response times.