It's a coordination mechanism in the prisoners dilemma. Building is defecting, zoning is legislating cooperation. In this scenario you and folks who want more

It's a coordination mechanism in the prisoners dilemma. Building is defecting, zoning is legislating cooperation. In this scenario you and folks who want more building are the justice system: you want defection, you want building. You say, "how is it moral for prisoners to constrain each other's actions?" but they voted for it freely because mutual cooperation is better than mutual defection, even if they personally would defect given the choice.