The 35-foot Madonna statue atop Orient Heights rises over a residential street of brick houses that appear frozen in time, untouched by the wave of development sweeping Boston.

By some measures, it’s an accurate portrait. The historically Italian neighborhood on the city’s northern edge is still tightly packed with single- and two-family homes that look out onto the Boston skyline and Logan International Airport.

But this part of East Boston is beginning to feel the effects of the city’s building boom, residents say. Developers are seeking to build hundreds of housing units on the outskirts of the neighborhood, and plans are taking shape to replace the nearby Suffolk Downs race track with a massive, mixed-use development, where the city would like Amazon to open its second headquarters.

Whether Amazon comes to Boston or not, change is coming to this East Boston neighborhood, and residents are worried that Orient Heights could lose the tranquility that drew many families there in the first place.

“We came here for a little bit more solitude and quiet and now, slowly but surely . . . people are expanding to here,’’ said Antonio Lanza, who moved to the neighborhood three decades ago.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency has already approved a proposal to build two office buildings on the Suffolk Downs site, marking the beginning of what is expected to be a 15- to 20-year effort to remake a 161-acre plot tucked between two subway stops, a public housing development, an oil tank farm, and Route 1A.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the Boston Housing Authority recently completed the first phase of plans to replace the squat brick structures in the Orient Heights development with modern townhouses and apartment buildings. The project will replace all 331 units.

A condominium complex is rising on Boardman Street, and the Boston development agency has approved plans for more units at different sites near Constitution Beach, outside the Suffolk Downs MBTA station, and on Bennington Street. Builders are seeking permission to construct two more apartment buildings, including one that calls for 270 units.

“We have had a lot of changes in the neighborhood. They’re not small projects. They’re large projects,’’ said Joanne Pomodoro, president of the Orient Heights Neighborhood Association. “We’re trying to live with everything. The hardest part is that everything seems to be focused on [being] bigger, larger, [and a] gateway to the airport.’’

Pomodoro, a 65-year-old social worker who grew up in the neighborhood, said residents already face regular traffic jams in the tunnels that connect to downtown Boston and complain that parking spots are harder to come by.

The neighborhood has been changing, Pomodoro said, citing the closing of several Catholic churches and parochial schools. Also, some believe it’s too easy for builders to get their projects approved by the city, she said, adding that many new housing units are too expensive for middle-class families and senior citizens.

“I think a general consensus is that it’s somewhat unplanned growth,’’ said Gail Miller, who moved to Orient Heights in the 1980s and has long been active with the Friends of Belle Isle Marsh, a group that advocates for the nature reservation next to Suffolk Downs. “We’re going to see the face of the neighborhood changing.’’

But Jerome Smith, chief of civic engagement and neighborhood services director for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, said building permits taken out by residents show neighborhood excitement about the future of Orient Heights.

The East Boston market is hot right now, and homeowners in Orient Heights are reinvesting in their properties by building additions, adding dormers, and making other improvements, he said.

“Their property values are going up, and so what they’re doing is they’re taking some of that money and they’re reinvesting,’’ Smith said. “They are very keen on development.’’

And some neighborhood projects are meant to improve the lives of those who already live in Orient Heights. This summer, the city plans to begin construction on a nearly $3.7 million project to improve ­Noyes Playground, where drainage problems often lead to flooding. Last fall, the city and Massport announced plans to create a new senior center at the former site of the Orient Heights branch of the Boston Public Library.

In March, families began moving into subsidized apartments completed during the first phase of the $140 million project to transform BHA housing in Orient Heights.

Jose Claudio, 40, said he was eager to move back to Orient Heights after living temporarily in Roslindale while the development was being built.

“We walked into the apartment and we were stunned. It was very beautiful,’ said Claudio, who moved into the neighborhood in 1994, when he was 13 years old. “It had a washer, dryer, dishwasher, and microwave. I wasn’t expecting that much.’’

He said development at Suffolk Downs will bring more jobs to the area.

“If we could get Amazon in there it would be great,’’ said Claudio, who cleans office buildings to support his wife and three children.

Tonya Price, who moved into a townhouse in the Orient Heights public housing development in March, said her new home is the nicest place she’s ever lived. She’s hoping to stay there for years to come.

“It is wonderful,’’ said Price, a certified nursing assistant and mother of seven. “I just love it.’’

Carol Johnson, 55, president of the Orient Heights tenant organization, said the development’s transformation has ushered in a wave of excitement but also trepidation about gentrification.

“I just have a feeling that we’re going to be forced out of here eventually,’’ she said. “You see it happening all over the city.’’

Smith said the city wants to work with the neighborhood and help residents push for development at Suffolk Downs that would cater to local businesses, protect Belle Isle Marsh, and address concerns about traffic. While some tall buildings are expected to rise at Suffolk Downs, residents don’t want them built directly adjacent to Orient Heights, he said.

“They’re saying you need to stitch our neighborhood together to . . . make it feel connected,’’ Smith said.

Thomas O’Brien, managing director of HYM Investment Group, which owns Suffolk Downs, said the company has held more than 250 meetings with residents of East Boston and Revere, where part of the site is.

About 25 percent of Suffolk Downs will be open space, and plans for about 7,500housing units will help ease the region’s housing crunch, he said. Townhouses are planned for the site’s border with Orient Heights, pushing the taller buildings farther into the property, O’Brien said.

“Suffolk Downs as a race track has been separate from the neighborhood for 80 years,’’ he said. “This is an opportunity for us to integrate the site into the neighborhood.’’

Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com.