SAN FRANCISCO – By the slimmest of margins the Golden Gate Bridge district directors voted Friday to leave a controversial plan to charge a toll to bicyclists and pedestrians on a list of initiatives to cope with looming deficits.

The motion to remove the toll from the plan lost on a 10 to 9 vote, with most San Francisco representatives voting for it, and most North Bay members against. Marin members Dietrich Stroeh, Judy Arnold and Alice Fredericks voted to keep studying the toll; Kate Sears voted against it.

“It’s our duty to think about this,” said Tiburon’s Fredericks during the two-hour debate at the Toll Plaza administration building.

But several San Francisco members sought to excise the toll from a 45-point plan aimed at keeping the agency solvent as it grapples with a five-year, $33 million deficit and a $210 million shortfall over 10 years. Personnel and capital costs are driving the deficit, according to bridge officials.

“People who walk across the bridge do not put wear and tear on the bridge,” San Francisco board member Scott Weiner said, adding the bike impact is very minimal on the structure. “(The toll) is very unreasonable.”

Friday’s vote doesn’t mean there will be a toll; each initiative must still to come to the board for discussion and be voted on individually. But the initiative: “Evaluate sidewalk access fees” now remains and could be implemented in 2017 if it gets approval at a later date. There is no estimate as to how much a fee might raise.

The bike and pedestrian tolls appeared on the district’s 2009 financial plan, but were deferred because of ongoing maintenance on the sidewalks.

From May 1937 to December 1970, a pedestrian toll was charged and collected via a coin turnstile. The board voted to discontinue a 10-cent toll on Dec. 15, 1970. That year some 48,000 pedestrians crossed the span.

The discussion on re-establishing bike and pedestrian tolls is not new. About 10 years ago the bridge board considered charging tolls to bicyclists and pedestrians, but it backed away from the plan after protests from bike groups. At that time it was estimated such a toll could raise $500,000 to $1.5 million annually.

But today thousands of bicyclists pour into Sausalito as part of a new tourism industry, and that figure may be higher. The district estimates roughly 6,000 bike riders and 10,000 pedestrians use the span daily during peak summer periods.

Jeff Sears, who operates Blazing Saddles, which rents bikes to tourists to cross the span, told the board his business benefits the bridge by boosting Golden Gate’s ferry service as those riders return to San Francisco.

The bike community also came to oppose the toll.

“Anything that gets in the way of encouraging people to get out of their cars to walk and bike is something we fundamentally oppose,” said Andy Peri, advocacy director for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition.

But Brian Sobel, board member from Sonoma, said the board owed it to bridge users to at least look at the toll to see if it made financial sense and not dismiss it out of hand.

“It’s not all or nothing,” he said. “It’s just about talking numbers.”