It's the government's job to serve its _current_ constituents. And those constituents want things a certain way. I don't know what the demographics are like tod

It's the government's job to serve its _current_ constituents. And those constituents want things a certain way. I don't know what the demographics are like today given the big influx of transplants over the last 10-15 years, but at some point the "land-owning minority" was not a minority, but the primary constituency the local government served. Given their investment in the community (by virtue of putting savings into houses), I would argue they do have a greater right to implement laws that protect their interests in how they want the city to look/feel/operate.