These laws are what dictates whether some construction project and its uses are allowed or not under the decisions made by the city's elected government. Thus,

These laws are what dictates whether some construction project and its uses are allowed or not under the decisions made by the city's elected government. Thus, while these types of laws and municipal administrative details often have their many flaws and sources of corruption, they're at least the most plausible metric of local democracy at work. They're in any case much more valid than the dislike of some distant group of critics with no place in local politicas and demographics.