Tom Landry says he’s found a “needle in a haystack” – a vacant lot in the heart of the densely residential and hugely desirable Munjoy Hill neighborhood.

The Portland developer plans to replace a parking lot at 130 Morning St. with a four-story condominium building. Landry outlined his plans in a site plan application to City Hall in late June. He doesn’t expect the project to attract the controversy other construction in the neighborhood has.

“We want density, we are not tearing anything down,” Landry said in an interview. “We are developing the lot, it is the right thing to do. It is not going to be a controversial project.”

That’s not a guarantee in a part of town where new development has met opposition and concern from locals who argue some new buildings don’t fit the neighborhood’s character and architecture.

“Certainly it will be controversial, the question is how controversial,” said Peter Murray, a North Street resident and member of the ad-hoc group Munjoy Hill Conservation Collaborative.

Murray has not seen development plans, but is certain the project will be scrutinized.

“I, and I suspect others, will be looking at it very closely, to see if it will be deleterious to the neighborhood,” he said.

Collaborative members and others supported a 2017 development moratorium and the Munjoy Hill Conservation Overlay District, zoning restrictions intended to protect architecturally significant buildings from demolition and ensure new developments fit into the neighborhood.

“I wouldn’t say we have a blind objection to putting anything on a parking lot,” Murray said. “It depends on the size, scale and architecture.”

The 12-space parking lot was sold last year for $1.5 million, according to city records. No one is currently leasing the lot, Landry said.

Landry plans to build nine units, including an efficiency apartment on the first floor and one unit of affordable workforce housing. Condos will be sold at market rate, but Landry said he does not have price estimates because the building design has not been finalized.

The proposed building will have ground-level parking for seven vehicles next to the efficiency unit and four off-street spaces for two homes next door. Landry plans to add solar panels on the roof.

As far as Landry can tell, the lot has never been developed.

“It’s a strange phenomenon,” he said. “You don’t have many vacant lots in a highly dense area like this.”