The controversy centers on the ruins of houses on one of the Old Town's best-known streets. The buildings were destroyed by the Soviet air force in 1944, in a night of bombing that killed almost 500 people and made 20,000 homeless.
The fate of the ruins will be decided in a referendum next week, putting an end to 50 years of heated discussion.
"The present owners of the land would like to construct new buildings there. But many ordinary people want to keep the area as it is today. We think the people of Tallinn have the right to decide," said Liina Kilemit from the public relations office of Tallinn's city administration.
Current owners of the various plots of land include the state and real estate company OU Gelsea, led by Norwegian investor Paal Aschjem. OU Gelsea has been trying to revive a 2.1-hectare plot since 1995.
Anyone over the age of 18 resident in Tallinn will be able to vote in one of 20 polling stations open in schools and municipality buildings on June 28 to 30.
Signs in German, Russian, English and Estonian loom over the Harju Street ruins: "Tallinn was bombed by the Soviet air force during the evening and midnight of March 9, 1944. Fifty-three percent of living space was destroyed, 20,000 people lost their homes, 463 people were killed and 659 were wounded."
Some of those killed were watching a film at the Amor cinema on the same street, which runs past Niguliste Church, which survived the attack. Estonia was at the time under Nazi German occupation.
After the Soviets re-occupied the Baltic states later in 1944, the ruins were covered over with soil.
Attempts to develop the area began in the 1960s, when Tallinn regained its tourist potential, but all projects were turned down by the Soviet authorities.
Twenty years later the Ministry of Culture put forward the idea of building a new art gallery there, a pyramid of concrete and glass. But this was also shelved.
The Soviet masters of Tallinn kept the ruins covered until increased political openness in the late 1980s, when they were uncovered and the signs put up.
A cafe and two green lawns turned the place of tragedy into a popular hangout for younger Tallinners. The ruins are currently preserved by city management.
According to Juhan Maiste, professor of the Estonian Academy of Art, the open view to Niguliste Church is an anomaly from the city planning point of view. From medieval times the bustling street was full of buildings, he said.
The block was thoroughly rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries, and became one of the most prestigious residential areas just 50 meters from the Town Hall Square. Before Russian planes dropped 2,000 bombs on the center of Tallinn that one night, the street had a hotel and upmarket apartment houses as well as the cinema.
A 450 million kroon ($26.5 million) real estate development project was stopped in 2001 when Tallinn City Council opted to carry out a survey of the city's residents to find out how they felt about permanently changing the face of Harju Street.
The poll revealed that most Tallinn residents supported the construction of new buildings on the site, including the green area in front of Niguliste Church.
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