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Shepherding a country club expansion through the Palo Alto Process has frustrated Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club President Stephen Pahl, a land-use attorney himself.
Pahl and the club's 550-or-so families applied to add a fitness facility, a tennis court, a new pool and other renovations to the 50-year-old Alexis Drive club in December 2006.
Neither the city nor the club could find its old use permit, however, and after it had secured nearly all city approvals this spring, next-door neighbor Sal Giovannotto threatened to sue over a project that planners admitted would seem gigantic from his house.
After beefing up the project's environmental review, the 17,000-square-foot project, which includes underground parking, returned before the Planning and Transportation Commission Wednesday.