New York University’s plans for a 26-story dormitory on a site formerly owned by the Roman Catholic Church could potentially violate deed restrictions placed on the property by the Archdiocese of New York.

The restrictions prohibit future inhabitants – in this case, students – from offering advice on family planning or getting abortions, or pinning up posters to that effect.

The dorm for 700 students would be built on the current site of St. Ann’s Church and Rectory, on East 12th Street between Third and Fourth avenues. The deed signed in December 2004 between the Roman Catholic Church of St. Ann and the dorm’s developer, Hudson Companies, contains several restrictions on the property’s use, including a ban on “performing any abortions or providing any professional counseling or advice advocating abortions or family planning.” It also prohibits signs or other advertising relating to abortions or family planning.

Moral deed restrictions are common in real estate transactions involving religious buildings, in part to avoid the embarrassment of a religious building being developed into something incongruous, such as a church on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea that was turned into a nightclub, once called the Limelight.

An attorney with Beckman, Lieberman & Barandes, Michael Beckman, said the restrictions most likely were designed to prevent the building from becoming an abortion clinic or home to an abortion advocacy group. But he said it is conceivable that regular dorm activities could come into conflict with the restrictions. Mr. Beckman said that, in his view, a sign posted in the dorm announcing a meeting that used the words “family planning” or “abortion” would violate the deed. He said a family-planning meeting or conference, or a class that advocated abortion over other options, would also potentially be in violation.

“It sounds to me like free speech would not likely come into conflict with the restrictive covenant, but if the church broadly interpreted it … an open forum advocating abortion would,” Mr. Beckman said.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, Joseph Swilling, said, “There is nothing in the contract that would prohibit the former site of St. Ann’s to be sold for the use of a dormitory to NYU.”

Mr. Swilling would not say whether NYU would then be permitted to provide any professional counseling or advice advocating abortion, or any signage advertising it. He said the deed restrictions were common in real estate transactions involving the Archdiocese.

A spokeswoman for NYU, Lynne Brown, said the university was planning to use the building as a dorm, not a health or medical facility, where family-planning counseling would ordinarily take place. She said the NYU team that negotiated the transaction had determined, “after researching it and looking into it,” that they “felt comfortable that the activities that typically occur in a dormitory would not be inconsistent with either the spirit or the language of the covenant.”

The current owner of the church, Hudson Companies, will build the dormitory and sell it to NYU, which plans to open it to students in 2009. The church, built in 1847, is currently wrapped in netting and will soon be demolished. The dorm design will preserve the facade and other architectural details.

Hudson Companies bought the church from the Roman Catholic Church of St. Ann in December 2004 for more than $15 million and also agreed to buy 55,000 square feet of air rights from the U.S. Postal Service’s Cooper Station, next to the church. A developer for Hudson Companies, David Kramer, said he was aware of the deed restrictions. He said NYU would ultimately be responsible for ensuring they are not violated.

The size, scale, and design of the planned dormitory, to be located midblock on a side street, has angered some neighbors and members of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. A spokeswoman for the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, Diane Jackier, said that earlier this year the commission chose not to designate the church because it “determined that the building did not merit individual landmark status.”

One neighbor, Tony McAndrew, said he and other concerned residents had hired a lawyer and would soon meet with the developer to seek downsizing. “Students are nocturnal beings,” Mr. Andrew, who is an architect, said. “We are concerned about there being noise and general levels of disturbance. I think it’s definitely going to affect the property values of anybody whose apartment faces in the direction of the dorm. It certainly is not an enhancement.”

Mr. Kramer, of the Hudson Companies, told The New York Sun that the company first considered building a hotel with condominiums on top, a form of development that has proved profitable recently. He said a project of a hotel and condos would have been more profitable but that the company decided instead to build and sell a dorm to NYU in order to diversify its portfolio.

“If the condo market gets stronger, we will benefit on our other sites,” Mr. Kramer said.”If the condo market softens, we are not putting all of our development eggs in the condo nest.”