The land was donated to the archdiocese and the church gave some of it back to the town to use as playing fields and parking lots. The Church has proposed developing its complex on one of the parking lots.

But local residents are concerned because the land has also been used as a waste site. According to Charles Gallagher, spokesperson for the Friends of Poets Corner, a recently formed local advocacy group, "We don't know what's going on with the site other than what the church and its environmental consultants said, and they wouldn't give us any numbers." Gallagher contends that the church did its testing without issuing a public notice. His group wants the church to do an audit. Repeated calls to the Archdiocese were not returned by presstime.

Gallagher's group is also worried that the density of the complex will create additional flooding in the area and result in overcrowding at the local school. "This is overdeveloped, high-density housing," Gallagher tells GlobeSt.com. "The Church wants to cap the site and then we'll have that much more run-off in the area."