The overall endpoints for this discussion are "no oversight, laissez faire all the development!" and "no development, snooze forever." The endpoints suggested

The overall endpoints for this discussion are "no oversight, laissez faire all the development!" and "no development, snooze forever." The endpoints suggested by the comment I responded to were "impact study" (with risks of indefinite timeline) and "greenlight checklist." I responded with this suggestion: greenlight checklist, with the option for impact study to justify exceptions to that checklist. Would-be builders get a choice between the two. The reasoning is that any greenlight checklist that's sufficient to do the job of custom impact studies will probably need to impose requirements that may not be practically necessary for every project. So, let people choose to check all the boxes (even some that might not be strictly necessary in order to avoid negative impacts) OR have a custom impact study done in order to receive specific exceptions. How is that not middle ground in between either set of endpoints?