Columbia University and the neighborhood community board are planning what is being described as a summit meeting for later this month to hammer out an agreement on the university’s proposed plans for expansion into West Harlem.

Before submitting completed plans for expansion to city planning officials, Columbia is looking for a green light from members of Community Board 9, which represents the area between the Hudson River and Morningside Drive, between 110th and 155th streets.

The university and the community board view the proposed meeting as a way to smooth over their disagreements over the expansion plans and perhaps forge a binding “community benefits agreement” between the parties. The nature of that compact would be similar to that of a proposed agreement between Brooklyn community boards and Forest City Ratner involving plans to move the New Jersey Nets basketball franchise to the Atlantic Yards complex.

A community source familiar with the negotiations between the community board and Columbia said the board wants a legally binding agreement that would include guarantees concerning job growth, employee training, and “affordable housing.”

Columbia officials would not provide specifics about their proposal to the board or its cost to the school.

“We take seriously our responsibility to work with the community and develop a package of benefits that addresses their concerns,” a Columbia representative who asked to be identified by name said in an e-mail to The New York Sun. “Whether or not that results in some sort of formal binding agreement, that is another issue. We are not opposed to that idea, but we need to work with the city, elected officials, and the community to find the best process.”

The meeting is likely to include representatives of local elected officials and of the office of the deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, Daniel Doctoroff.

Columbia’s 36-acre campus amounts to the smallest per student among the Ivy League universities. The school released preliminary plans last April to extend the Morningside Heights campus to an 18-acre industrial area bounded by 125th and 133rd streets, from Broadway to 12th Avenue. Its plans involve rezoning the area for mixed and educational uses and building classrooms and laboratories.

The university has touted its $5 billion, 30-year expansion plans as a vehicle for economic growth in the West Harlem neighborhood, most of whose permanent residents live in public housing.

The university’s proposal, however, has received a cold response from the community board, which last year released its own development plan for the neighborhoods it represents.

One major difference between the plans concerns the rezoning of the area. The community board wants at least a portion of the area zoned for light manufacturing, leaving some of the industrial businesses in place. Columbia wants the city to approve rezoning the entire area for mixed and educational use and has been negotiating buyout and relocation deals with the roughly 30 businesses in the area, which include a number of moving-and-storage companies. Columbia is said to own about 42% of the land in the expansion area.

The community board also wants Columbia to rule out supporting eminent domain proceedings against any holdout businesses. Seven of the businesses have sought to pre-empt any government move toward condemnation by hiring a prominent attorney, Norman Siegel, formerly with the New York Civil Liberties Union, to represent them.

Mr. Siegel, who left open the possibility that the businesses he represents would be willing to negotiate with Columbia, told the Sun: “Our position is very simple. We want Columbia to say they will not use eminent domain to condemn the land the businesses currently occupy.” He said he had not been aware of the proposed summit meeting.

Though Columbia does not have authority over eminent domain, which would be initiated by the Empire State Development Corporation, it is unlikely that the state would launch any proceedings without prodding from the university, community sources said. The New York City Economic Development Corporation has completed a draft of a so-called blight study for the West Harlem neighborhood that, if finalized, could represent the first step toward the use of eminent domain.

Besides a pledge not to back eminent domain proceedings, the community board is looking for Columbia to make commitments on the number of permanent jobs created by its expansion and the number of construction jobs that would be offered to neighborhood residents. The board also wants Columbia to help establish a job-training program and subsidize low-income housing in the area, which is adjacent to the General Grant public housing project.

A source familiar with negotiations said Columbia will present to the community board the university’s proposal for moving each of the businesses, including specific relocations plans and buy-out figures.

A community source told the Sun, “We don’t want to see Columbia build a fortress in an economically challenged environment where the community is no better off than before Columbia developed the site.”

Material that the university released in September, from its own economic impact survey, projected the expansion would generate $324 million in revenue for the community and almost 3,000 permanent jobs in the first 5- to 10-year phase. Those numbers would be more than quadrupled upon completion of all three phases in the plan, according to the university. The university says the first phase would also produce $13 million a year in tax revenue for the city and state. If Columbia and the community board come to an agreement, the university would then probably move ahead on the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. Columbia would submit a “scoping document” to the Department of City Planning -a review of the environmental issues related to the expansion plan. The city agency would then conduct a public scoping session, which would allow the community residents to comment.

If the document is approved, City Planning would then notify Columbia to submit a full environmental-impact statement, which the university by now has almost completed, as well as its land use application. The community board would have 60 days to review the application and would hold public hearings on it. It then would go to the Manhattan borough president for a 30-day review. City Planning would then reject, modify, or approve the application. If approved, the City Council would vote on it.