The only known photo of the entity that reportedly occupies the vacant lot.

Fights over development are a favored pastime in Rock Creek Heights, where residents of this idyllic Maryland suburb are known to pack public hearings to protest even the smallest change. This time, the brouhaha surrounds a controversial proposal to build just one house in the town’s historic district.

Drive down Main Street and you’ll see dueling yard signs for or against construction of the proposed house, a four bedroom Modern Farmhouse-style dwelling that will replace an overgrown vacant lot.

“This house will destroy everything I know and love about this community,” said Bea Knott-Heer, standing next to the “No to one (1) house” sign in her yard. “My kids grew up playing in that vacant lot, and when they came home covered in thorns and mysterious bites, I’d tend to their wounds.”

The quarter-acre lot contains the remains of another building that burned down under mysterious circumstances. Town lore says a dangerous, terrifying creature lives somewhere on the property, though supporters of the house being built insist that no one has seen or heard the beast.

“I eagerly welcome this house and the human people who will live in it,” says Ina Yimbay, chair of Rock Creek Heights People For More People, a pro-housing group. “Given our housing shortage, this is a much better use of the land than an entity that, frankly, may not even be there.”

Not everyone’s convinced, however. “There is a conspiracy in Rock Creek Heights, and this vacant lot is exhibit A,” says Ben Gleck, who hosts a podcast about paranormal activity and town staff he doesn’t like. “The entity told me personally that it bought this property in 1984 after years of saving up the tears of the innocent for a down payment. If people want to live here, they should do the same! And another thing: how come every time I or one of my seven listeners brings up the entity at a public hearing, do they have to evacuate the building?”

Town officials insist that they’re not trying to stifle conversation. “This community supports open, rigorous discourse about the vacant lot, even as we fear what lies deep within its furthest reaches, where no light can pass,” says Mayor Juan Chowders. “I applaud the Planning Commission for approving this one house, considering that all of the members who voted in favor of it have disappeared for some reason.”

The developer of the proposed house was not available for comment. When a reporter visited the address listed for the company in the neighboring town of Rock Creek Heights Heights, they returned with an ashen expression and the thousand-yard stare of someone who has seen something they can never, ever, unsee.

Knott-Heer doesn’t look forward to telling her now-adult children, who have all fled to North Carolina allegedly for its lower housing costs, that the creature they grew up with will have taken flight. “I fear for the future of this town,” she says. “We’ve displaced the entity. No one is safe.”