The master plan for a new arena won a key approval yesterday despite a determined defense by Hill District advocates who wanted guaranteed neighborhood benefits first.

The city planning commission voted 5-3 to approve the overall layout of the arena site and a 500-space parking garage, after adding some 17 conditions. That vote allows the Penguins and city officials to move forward with more detailed planning in a process that will involve several more votes.

Neighborhood leaders, meanwhile, will continue talks with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato on hoped-for benefits that could include development planning, job training and efforts to attract a grocery store.

The arena plan's approval was the final result of a long day that began with morning negotiations, featured a chummy news conference at intermission, and closed with a marathon hearing and commission vote that had neighborhood residents swinging from celebratory to surly to resigned.

"We're happy that the master plan is approved, but there is no gloating on our part," said Ron Porter, a senior consultant for the team, at the end of the seven-hour commission meeting.

All day, Hill residents said they supported the arena -- but not unconditionally.

"We welcome it," said Evans Moore, director of the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network, during a rollicking public comment portion of the commission meeting. "Let us be involved in the future of our community, in the future of our children. ... Delay this vote until there is a community benefits agreement signed and in place, so that when the last brick goes up on the arena, everybody can celebrate."

Two organizations, the One Hill Community Benefits Agreement Coalition and the newly named Hill Faith and Justice Alliance, want the city, county and team to sign a legally binding pact to ensure that the neighborhood gains from the arena in ways it did not when much of it was torn down to make way for what is now Mellon Arena.

"We need to make sure, and want to make sure, that the mistakes of years ago are not repeated this time," Mr. Ravenstahl said.

A 20-page proposal from One Hill and a three-page proposal from the city and county have been merged into one document that is now the subject of talks.

Negotiations Sunday night and yesterday morning got the city, county and One Hill group "90 percent of the way there," in Mr. Ravenstahl's words. "We've literally been going line-by-line through the document to make sure that the input that the community wants to have has been in there."

"We're working very hard to get to an agreement," said One Hill leader Carl Redwood at a news conference in the mayor's office. "We anticipate [talking for] many hours over the next few days."

Outside of the planning commission's Ross Street meeting room, Hill advocates put on red armbands or black decals, snapped pictures of each other, passed out talking points and even a poem, and signed petitions calling for a City Council hearing on their concerns.

Their mood turned ugly, though, when commission Chairwoman Wrenna Watson sought to limit the number of public speakers on the topic, arguing that residents had their say at a Dec. 11 meeting. She later relented and allowed a parade of speakers, nearly all of whom asked for a delay in the master plan vote pending talks on the benefits agreement.

"We have seen 50 years of so-called good faith without good outcomes," said Momar Milliones, a Hill resident. "A grocery store cannot feed anyone without a good job and a living wage."

Groups like the Pittsburgh Civic Design Coalition, Sierra Club and Preservation Pittsburgh also urged a delay, saying that there wasn't enough public input.

Commission members agonized about whether the eventual loss of some 2,500 parking spaces around Mellon Arena would prove catastrophic. They debated whether plans for connecting Centre Avenue and Fifth Avenue were sufficient. They placed conditions on traffic, parking and pedestrian access -- but concluded they could not hold off until a community benefits agreement was signed.

Monte Rabner, Todd Reidbord, Paul Dick, Mary Lou Simon and Barbara Mistick voted for the plan, while Barbara Ernsberger, Lynne Garfinkel and Ms. Watson voted against.

"This doesn't mean that the negotiations are over," said Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Pat Ford, who represented the mayor at the meeting. He noted that the Penguins must make several more runs through the public approval process.

The parties may meet again "as soon as [today]," Mr. Ravenstahl said. "Ideally this is something that comes to a conclusion in the next few days rather than the next few weeks."

The One Hill group had asked for neighborhood-controlled development funding, first dibs on jobs for Hill residents, a grocery store and community center, more park space and input into a redevelopment master plan.

Mr. Ravenstahl and Mr. Onorato had countered with a pledge to help fund a neighborhood plan, a resource center and a YMCA, plus a "good-faith effort" to lure a grocery store. The Penguins, who were not at the negotiating table yesterday, pledged $1 million toward a grocery store, matched by $1 million from the city.