Want to stop it in it's tracks?
I'll bet a months pay that the grounds are quite thoroughly contaminated with POL and various chemicals spilled/buried over the years. I'll also bet nobody bothered to test it and it would not meet health standards if they did.
The only real way to clean that up is to scoop up the contaminated soil (which can be quite deep) and run it through a furnace. It costs a fortune to bring those sites up to safe housing or agricultural standards if they enforced.
Suddenly it doesn't sound so attractive to a developer.