Tucked away, cared for and durable are qualities associated with Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto, a stone-studded shrine on a dead-end street on Staten Island that volunteers have expanded, little by little, since the Great Depression.

But those descriptions could also apply to its surrounding neighborhood, Rosebank, a low-key and largely Italian community that for generations seemed to stay remarkably intact.

Cracks, however, are showing. Willy-nilly development has jammed clumps of townhouses on tiny lots, critics say, ruining blocks and worsening congestion, even if that development is perfectly legal. And projects that are much larger, with even greater potential to alter the landscape, are coming.

“We really need a timeout on development,” said Michael DeCataldo, 69, a third-generation Rosebank resident and a retired sanitation worker. “We’re not like Brooklyn and Manhattan that have major thoroughfares going through.”