The Bastrop City Council agreed Tuesday night to lease a parcel of land at Mayfest Park off Loop 150 to Bastrop County to house its planned emergency shelter.

In exchange, the county will also use the facility as a complex to promote rural lifestyle in Bastrop, with AgriLife Extension offices, as well as space for area 4H clubs.

The Bastrop County Long-Term Recovery Team, which helps with disaster recovery and cleanup, will move its offices there.

In times of emergency, the county’s planned shelter could house hundreds of people, Bastrop Public Safety Director Trey Job said.

Since 2011, the county has worked to improve its fire and disaster response, with the help of a $26 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development grant awarded after the Bastrop Complex Fire. It has planned new evacuation routes, a radio tower in Smithville and erosion-control projects, as well as directed $1.5 million each to the cities of Bastrop, Elgin and Smithville to build or upgrade their emergency shelters.

The county’s shelter at Mayfest Park will be the fourth added after the destructive 2011 fire, at a cost of about $2.5 million.

"We believe that this asset, centered on the essential functions of response and recovery, will add an essential element to our preparedness," County Judge Paul Pape wrote in a letter to the City Council.

Pape and Mike Fisher, the county’s emergency management coordinator, went before the City Council on Sept. 13 to ask for the land at Mayfest Park.

On Tuesday, members approved the request to lease the property to the county for 99 years for a one-time payment of $77,845 — or $1 per square foot. It will be prepaid into the city’s Park Trail Land Dedication Fund, an account developers pay into when they build subdivisions without parks.

The county lease payment will bring the total in the park dedication fund to nearly $200,000, which will help the city purchase new parkland.

"I think it’s a real step forward as far as promoting our rural culture," Council Member Kay McAnally said of the partnership with the county. "I am delighted to have been working on this. It’s a dream of mine come true."

The shelter, which will sit on 1.5 acres near the rodeo arena, will have room for 158 parking spots and a 12,500-square-foot facility, equipped with kitchens, restrooms, activity space and offices.

In Bastrop, a similar shelter is planned for the north end at 1209 Linden St., to be funded with the city’s share of the HUD grant money. That project had been slated for Bob Bryant Park, after a joint project with the YMCA to build a larger shelter and recreation center was scrapped amid a land rights controversy in March.

Smithville, with its $1.5 million allocation, will expand its recreation center and emergency shelter. Elgin also plans to build a large shelter that doubles as a recreation center by adding $2 million from its general fund to the project.