The Austin City Council stopped a Pacelli Catholic Schools request to take Third Avenue Northwest between Fourth and Fifth Streets private during the council’s public meeting Monday.

The council did not move forward with a vacation committee to further examine the issue after several residents spoke out against Pacelli’s request.

“I’m concerned about who’s going to pick up the tab,” one woman told council members.

Austin resident Charles Mills said he couldn’t find any record of anyone who was injured at the intersection of Fourth Street and Third Avenue Northwest by St. Augustine’s Catholic Church and Pacelli High School, which was one of Pacelli’s concerns in taking Third Avenue private.

“I think it’s more about providing for the pleasure of the people at St. A’s,” he told the council.

Pacelli officials tried to emphasize the project would not only beautify the area through a Pacelli school campus but also decrease safety issues and correct a crooked city intersection. Yet council members said they heard a lot of negative feedback over the request to make the public road private, which prompted the council to vote 4-3 against it, with Council Members Jeff Austin, Jeremy Carolan, Michael Jordal and Judy Enright against the vacation, while Steve King, Roger Boughton and Janet Anderson voted for the vacation.

“I’m very disappointed that the council decided to not at least go forward with a committee,” Pacelli President Jim Hamburge said after the meeting. “That’s the biggest disappointment. They didn’t even let it go to the committee.”

Pacelli officials argued taking Third Avenue private would result in safer transportation for students, almost all of whom from elementary to high school walk between Pacelli High School and Pacelli Elementary School on a daily basis. Pacelli would have created a school campus for its students if the city had vacated the road.

Yet taking the roadway private would have meant significant costs for the city, according to public works officials. City officials conducted a traffic study of the area and said getting rid of traffic lights at Fourth Street and Third Avenue Northwest would likely mean a new signal intersection at Fourth Street and Fourth Avenue, which could cost between $150,000 to $200,000. The vacation would have also created a three-block stretch without road connections.

About 7,000 to 10,000 cars travel down Fourth Street Northwest every day, according to city estimates. In addition, about 1,300 cars use Third Avenue to go west and about 870 use the roadway to go east.

Pacelli parents, volunteers and officials came up with the vacation during its 100th anniversary celebration last year when residents spoke of what they hoped for the Catholic school’s next 100 years. Pacelli’s recent $3 million fundraising campaign also gives school officials leeway to think of a Pacelli campus, though Hamburge notes most of the money involved will go to school infrastructure improvements such as boiler replacements and electric work.

Hamburge said Pacelli will likely ask the city for a vacation request in the future.