It's by no means the largest housing development in Palo Alto, but for the applicant, the area residents and the City Hall planners, the project at 702 Ellsworth Place just might be the most vexing.

Rooted in a city error made decades ago, the project entails a single home at the entrance to Ellsworth Place, a residential community off Middlefield Road. It has already involved multiple design revisions and threatened litigation, and it has already sparked dozens of hours of debate over public hearings in front of the Planning and Transportation Commission and the City Council — all to little avail.

Nitin Handa, who bought the property at 702 Ellsworth, was under the impression at the time of the purchase that it was zoned for single-family residential use, as the city's zoning maps had indicated. Palo Alto officials later learned that the property was in fact part of a "planned community" district that was created in the 1950s and later amended — a designation that would prohibit Handa's planned home.

Neighbors, meanwhile, maintain that constructing a home in what is currently a parking lot would create a traffic hazard by reducing site lines from Ellsworth to Middlefield and make life more complicated for delivery truck drivers. If approved, the project should include design features like a widened driveway and a short fence.

The City Council tried to resolve the dispute on Sept. 18, when it agreed to change the zoning code by creating two "planned community" districts, one for the site of the proposed Ellsworth home and another for the 12 apartments at 2901-2905 Middlefield Road. Council members also requested that Handa provide a 26-foot easement on the first 37 feet of Ellsworth to allow cars to get in and out easier. That's wider than the 21.5-foot driveway that currently exists and the 24 feet that Handa had offered as a compromise prior to the meeting.

"I think it helps some of the vehicles to get in and opens it up for two cars passing and contributes to the safety," said Council member Ed Lauing, who proposed the 26-foot width.

While Handa's attorney suggested that requiring him to give up any more land would entail a taking, area residents argued that the city should demand more safety measures. Bhanu Iyer was part of a group of neighbors who criticized Handa at the Sept. 18 meeting for failing to accept the design features that the neighbors have been calling for. She urged the council not to approve the project until these changes are made.

"Safety is our biggest concern," Iyer said. "What we don't understand and would like to understand is why developer and homeowner aren't concerned about the same safety?"

Handa strongly rejected these characterizations and cited a traffic review that was commissioned as part of the project, which concluded that his project would not bring a negative traffic impact.

"I can repeat the word 'unsafe,' and 'safety issues' 100 times, that does not make something unsafe," Handa said at the September hearing. "It might make a perception in the mind that something is unsafe but that doesn't (mean) in reality that something in unsafe."

He also pushed back against the idea that it's his duty to accommodate the delivery trucks for the residential community.

"There is a presumption that they have a right to trespass, that delivery trucks have a right to park there. There is a basic assumption that everyone has a right to go on that lot, do their parking, do their U-turns. Somehow people feel that it's a public lot," Handa said. "No, it's private lot. Anyone going into it is trespassing."

The council stopped short in September of voting to approve the project after several members suggested exploring other solutions for delivery trucks, including a drop-off location with lockers for Ellsworth residents. According to a newly released report from the Department of Planning and Development Services, that is no longer a viable option. UPS and FedEx have reportedly told Handa that they don't offer residential drop-off containers and the applicant has indicated he will not be pursuing the idea, the report states.

On Nov. 6, the council will try once again to get to the finish line. A new proposal from staff designates four spaces at the 2901 Middlefield Road site, with access to Ellsworth, for delivery trucks. In addition, it designates two parking spaces at nearby Sutter Avenue for a loading zone that could accommodate large delivery trucks.

The "planned community" ordinance that the council will consider on Nov. 6 also establishes a 35-foot "sight triangle" at the intersection of Ellsworth and Middlefield, a designation that prohibits Handa from plants, fences or other objects taller than 1 foot.

Handa is opposing this requirement. In a letter that he sent to the council on Oct. 17, he argued that a 12-inch fence on Middlefield "is not really a fence that provides any security or privacy" and that it would be far shorter than the 36-inch fences at other properties along Middlefield.

"I have a 4-year-old son who can easily step out to Middlefield Road from this short fence," Handa wrote.

To date, however, council members have generally sided with residents when it comes to traffic safety. Vice Mayor Greer Stone, who lives close to the project site, was among the council members who supported design features and restrictions that would slow down vehicles near the intersection of Middlefield and Ellsworth.

"This idea that cars are going to know this intersection is coming up and slow down appropriately in order to avoid cars or kids I think is wishful thinking," Stone said. "I'm not willing to make a decision based on wishful thinking that a kid is not going to get hurt or any type of accident is (not) going to occur there."