Laurie Frey heard jackhammers one morning this week and raced down the block to find demolition workers preparing to cut down the tall trees on the lot next to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. She realized what the power saws meant: A project to build a second apartment complex on the cathedral grounds was finally beginning.

For Ms. Frey, the removal of the trees this week and the arrival of the bulldozers and dump trucks were signs that the landscape around the cathedral was about to change dramatically. Some in the neighborhood accuse the cathedral of greed, and community groups that are fighting the 430-apartment development have scheduled a protest rally on Saturday morning in front of the cathedral, on Amsterdam Avenue at West 112th Street.

“Once it’s done, it’s huge and permanent,” said Laura Friedman, president of the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, which is fighting the new complex. “It’s monstrous. They’ll realize when it’s built, what a shame it is that it exists.”