My small town has turned down apartment buildings for reasons like 'preserving the character of a run down building built after 1970' and 'not wanting to have a

My small town has turned down apartment buildings for reasons like 'preserving the character of a run down building built after 1970' and 'not wanting to have apartments near a planned business hotel'. The people opposing the projects absolutely don't want them built. For the one, there was also a discussion of having more poor people in the area that is a few hundred feet from the poorest census block in the county.