For more than three years, the burned out Minneapolis Third Precinct station has sat vacant, surrounded by concrete barricades and razor wire. (Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune file/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Minneapolis City Council members postponed a vote Tuesday on Mayor Jacob Frey's choice for a location for a future Third Precinct police station.

The two-week pause is the latest in a procession of delays and non-decisions that has tied the city in knots as it seeks a future site for officers serving south Minneapolis — without a consensus among its leaders.

The original Third Precinct building was overrun, ransacked and set ablaze in the days after George Floyd was murdered by officers stationed there in 2020. It remains structurally sound but boarded up and fenced off with razor wire. Officers serving the area continue to operate out of makeshift quarters downtown.

Supporters of the delay argued that it was necessary to avoid rushing without due diligence to pick a site that could have a lasting legacy on the area. Frey and others, meanwhile, argued the council has enough information.

Frey's current choice is to construct a new station on a city-owned vacant lot at E. 26th Street and Minnehaha Avenue, an endeavor previously estimated to cost between $22 and $26 million — although that cost could easily rise if a more ambitious "community safety center" including a range of city services is developed.

The mayor picked that site after the council nixed an idea to house the precinct on the edge of downtown for 10 years, and expressed overwhelming opposition to returning police to the previous building. Frey still says he'd support either of those locations as well, and on Tuesday, he addressed the full council, which met as a committee.

"My position is clear," he said. "The community deserves a decision and my administration will do whatever it takes to get to seven votes."

But Council Member Emily Koski, who led a group of council members in pushing for the delay, as well as a request for more information on the city's site selection thus far, disagreed, saying there was "still outstanding information" preventing the council from responsibly making a decision.

Tuesday's vote was 9-3. Those in favor of the delay and request for more information by Oct. 31 included Koski and Council Members Elliott Payne, Robin Wonsley, Jeremiah Ellison, Jamal Osman, Jason Chavez and Aisha Chughtai. Council President Andrea Jenkins and Vice President Linea Palmisano also voted in favor of it but expressed reservations and acknowledged that any attempt to force the vote would result in failure. Those voting against were Council Members Michael Rainville, LaTrisha Vetaw and Lisa Goodman. Council Member Andrew Johnson, who was a co-sponsor of the delay, was absent.