Rich Costanzo is bewildered that his proposal for two vacant lots in Greenfield met such opposition.

After a year of planning to build a three-story apartment building with doctors' offices on the street level at Greenfield Avenue and McCaslin Street, he has abandoned the idea.

Three weeks ago, with a no-vote from the city's zoning office and outcry from the neighborhood, he posted a sign on the corner that reads, "Please tell us what you would like to see on these two locations. We want what is best for the Greenfield community. Your opinion is greatly appreciated! Contact our local representatives [the Greenfield Organization], 412-422-8885."

"I went door-to-door" within 150 feet of the intersection, he said, "and we didn't have anyone who objected." He said people who didn't live nearby showed up to oppose his plan at three meetings.

"They say it would be adverse to the neighborhood," said Mr. Costanzo, who owns the Mardi Gras, a restaurant and bar in Shadyside. "I thought, 'If eight elderly housing units and two doctors offices are adverse, you tell me what isn't.' "

People have called with ideas, many of which are exceptions to zoning in the area, which is residential. Among them were a cheerleading facility, a skateboard park and a parking lot.

Mr. Costanzo said he thought elderly residents would like his idea. The Greenfield Senior Community Center -- part of the Magee Recreation Center -- sits across the avenue from the lots. "But they were opposed to it.

"If the land across the street was vacant and someone said they were going to build a senior center and playground and swimming pool there, everybody and his grandmother would fight it. But look at the good it does."

"Most people here are after a parking lot," said Joe Mastriano, a member of the senior center's board and a relative of Mr. Costanzo's wife. "But the man has an investment in the land. An apartment building, eight to 10 units" would be a better investment.

Variances are routinely given for projects that do not diverge too weirdly from the zoning code, but without neighborhood support, "there's a built-in bias for the status quo," said Councilman Douglas Shields, whom Mr. Costanzo had called for help. "I said why don't you build something there that has a use by right?' "

Mr. Costanzo said the zoning and planning staff "didn't like the building we were proposing, said it was too much like a suburban strip mall. They wanted the building brought out to the street, like townhouses, and I said, 'Great because I want housing, too.' I proposed units above and two doctors offices."

His investment in that project would have been more than $1.5 million, he said.

Calls for comment from the zoning administrator were not returned.

Mr. Costanzo had hoped to accommodate a doctor who rented an office from him and needed more room. She practiced in the neighborhood for 20 years and wanted to stay, he said, but her window of opportunity closed and she relocated.

Mr. Costanzo, 53, bought the two lots, 15,000 square-feet in all, at tax auction last year. An occupied house sits on one lot and would be razed. In 1990, he developed the Cambridge Center at Beechwood Boulevard, to which he brought a Bruster's ice cream shop.

A Greenfield native who now lives in Jefferson Hills, Mr. Costanzo has "at least a dozen" properties in the neighborhood. His mother lives six doors from the site, his sister lives in the neighborhood and several in-laws are also residents. The sign asking for feedback is "the path of least resistance," he said. "I don't want any hassles."