Nah, it's not like there aren't a million towns out there with adequate regulations they could have just copied. Or they could have made that "contact Harold if

Nah, it's not like there aren't a million towns out there with adequate regulations they could have just copied. Or they could have made that "contact Harold if he's being an jerk" have legal teeth: community review boards and the like. Or zoning, like most towns have. You don't need perfectly airtight zoning regulations if draft them right: just ask SF residents where the rights of existing residents are almost too strong. This is a southern town so I strongly suspect the anti-regulation rhetoric won out and now they paid the price.