"I believe that every neighborhood should shoulder some benefit for the community,'' Councilman Ron Packard said. "But we cannot put too much of that on one neighborhood.''

Tuesday night, council members certified the environmental impact report and voted to add the pool project to the capital improvement program for 2005-06.

Residents have long tussled over the aquatic center. The city council initially approved plans for the Rosita Park complex in 2002, but a group of residents sued the city, saying the project required further environmental study. Last year, a judge mandated a full environmental report, which was presented to the council in November. Several community members then requested additional clarification on alternative locations and how special events, such as swim meets, would affect the residential neighborhood. That pushed the debate to Tuesday's meeting.

Group pledges support

A community organization, Swimmers Promoting Los Altos Aquatics, Safety, and Health, has pledged to raise money to build the aquatic center, which will sit partially on city land and partially on land leased to the city by the Los Altos School District. It is near the site of the old Covington Pool, which closed in 2001 so Covington School could be reopened.

Swimmers say they need a center that would accommodate competitive and recreational swimming, because closing the last public pool ended swimming lessons in the city and sent swim teams hunting for new homes. But residents in the Rosita Park area have said that increased traffic and noise would hurt the neighborhood, which already houses an elementary school and athletic fields.

Noise, traffic woes

"It used to be a nice, quiet neighborhood where kids could play touch football outside,'' said Roy Presley, a member of the Rosita Neighborhood Coalition, which has opposed the project.

The pool could bring an estimated 1,500 car trips along Rosita Avenue each summer day, which Presley said would greatly increase noise and create traffic and parking woes.

The environmental study acknowledged that the neighborhood would see a "substantial increase'' in noise as a result of traffic to and from the pool complex, but the council decided the community benefit outweighed that drawback.

"It leaves us not much in the way of choices,'' said Karl Urban, president of the Rosita Neighborhood Coalition. He added that he expects his group will file a legal complaint within 30 days.