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A collective sigh of relief emanated from the Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto last week. Stanford University's general use plan — the implementation of which is the pivotal factor in the JCC's ongoing relocation efforts — sailed through its 30-day window with nary a lawsuit filed against it.

With the JCC's current city-owned site on Arastradero Road coveted by the Palo Alto Unified School District for a middle school, implementation of the Stanford plan would enable the JCC to establish a new home on university-owned land.

"We were hoping there would be no suits, but, always, this is something that was out of our control," said Joe Hirsch, chair of the JCC's land use committee. "We are pleased that the two groups, the Committee for Green Foothills and the Stanford Open Space Alliance, elected to not pursue any further legal remedies."

After years of wrangling, Stanford's GUP was passed by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in December. While safeguarding 2,000 acres of campus foothills for 25 years, the plan opens nearly 5 million square feet of land for future university development. In return for the passage of the plan, Stanford has offered to lease a prime chunk of real estate to the city of Palo Alto.

Known as "the Mayfield site," the land at Page Mill Road near El Camino Real is earmarked for use by a number of nonprofits, including the JCC.

While the process has not always gone smoothly, Sandy Blovad, the JCC's executive director, maintains that "we're moving forward," and points to the opening of negotiations between the JCC and the city, which took place on Wednesday.

"It's our first meeting, which is a little like the first round of a boxing match. There's a little sparring; you identify all the deal points and think about having an initial discussion about that," Blovad said of the negotiating session he and Hirsch had with Palo Alto's city manager, Frank Benest, and the director of administration, Carl Yates. "I don't think at the first meeting you get into any hardball or whatever."

Benest said that issues on the table include the length of the JCC's lease at the Mayfield site, lease payments, site usage, JCC programming needs, square footage and joint use.

"Generally, we're all heading in the same direction," he said. "There are nuances we'll have discussions about, but we're generally headed in the same direction."

Blovad and Hirsch stress that the JCC's current No. 1 priority is the reaching of a four-party memorandum of understanding among the city, the JCC, Stanford and the school district. As a result, a web of negotiations is currently taking place, as the JCC, Stanford and the school district are all currently meeting with city officials.

The JCC has been at the Arastradero Road site for 18 years, on land that the school district sold to the city of Palo Alto. With increasing enrollment, the school district wishes to reclaim the former site of Terman Middle School.

While the JCC has repeatedly stated that it will not agree to relocate to a temporary site until arrangements have been finalized for a permanent future home, Blovad has been discussing possible transitional sites with Don Phillips, the superintendent of schools, and Paul Thiltgen, Palo Alto's director of community services.

Thiltgen said that, after much searching, a site encompassing portions of both the Cubberley Community Center and the former Greendell Elementary School is the only one that can accommodate the JCC's needs.

"They have a need for a gymnasium, classroom space, exercise space and [dance room] space," said Thiltgen. "Those are all at the Cubberley site. It's just a matter of us being able to schedule them."

Although the Cubberley site lacks a swimming pool, which means the JCC would not be able to continue its aquatic programs, Thiltgen estimates that "85 to 90 percent" of the JCC's current programs would be feasible on the proposed temporary site.

The Cubberley-Greendell site, which features 181,000 square feet of building space, currently houses several nonprofits, two dance studios, child care, programs run by Foothill College and 22 artists' studios. Thiltgen said that accommodating the JCC, while quite possible, would require "a lot of juggling."

Both Blovad and Hirsch declined to comment on possible temporary JCC sites while their permanent future status is still up in the air.

"We certainly have a wonderful site, centrally located in Palo Alto with good vehicular access and decent size," said Hirsch of the Mayfield site. "It's not as large as we would have liked, but a decent size. There's a lot we can do out there. We just need to pin down the details."