Halifax has a dirty little secret.

It's hidden behind a community mural on Spring Garden Road, the busiest street east of Montreal, in a filthy, abandoned lot.

Beer bottles, blankets and empty spray cans litter the lot and some residents and business owners say the space is more than just an eyesore – it's a health and safety issue.

Shaun O'Hearn owns a restaurant that sits next to the lot on Spring Garden Road and he says it's been an issue since the pizza shop that was once in its place burned down in 2008.

He says his restaurant has one of the best views in Halifax, as long as you don't look down.

"It's probably quite dangerous, so if anybody ever got in there, or any youngsters ever got in there, I would hate to think what might happen to them," O'Hearn says of the hidden lot. "Not that I've ever seen anyone doing any drugs down there, but I'm sure that there's probably some needles in there."

But O'Hearn isn't the only area resident who is worried about the space. One man, who didn't want to be identified, says he has a perfect view into the abandoned lot from his residence. He says people hang out there at all hours and a few have offered him drugs.

He says all they have to do is climb the wall to get in.

"If they're brazen enough that they'd scale the walls here and go in there…they scale the wall to my place, and they could come into my washroom, my kitchen," says the man.

The owner of the property had no comment when CTV Atlantic contacted him.

His architect says they have been trying to build on the lot for years, but the city has been giving them the runaround.

Nancy Tissington, the executive director of the Spring Garden Area Business Association, says thy city and the proprietor can't agree on how the space should be used.

"I think what's happening is they can't give them a development agreement to go forward until a land use bylaw has been changed, and that is something that has to go through HRM," says Tissington.

At this point, the future of the lot is uncertain. A spokesman for the owner says they hope to rebuild as early as September, but no one at Halifax City Hall will confirm that.

A representative for the city says that after the building burned down in 2008, the owner asked the city to rebuild on the space. But HRMbyDESIGN - a regional plan developed by the city that embraces urban design - was introduced around that time and the bylaws changed. The city and the owner have been at odds ever since.

The architect says some city staff are in support of building on the site and others are not. He tells CTV Atlantic that the city has agreed to amend some bylaws so they can build there and there are plans in the works to construct offices and a 21-unit apartment building on the site.

But until that process begins, area residents are still concerned that the site remains an eyesore and a danger to anyone who chooses to scale the wall and drop down into it.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Alyse Hand