Published Date 2/25/2022
It can often become a case of be careful-what-you-wish-for. You move to a neighborhood or an area that perfectly suits your tastes and seems to curry favor from others like you. Perhaps you bought an elegant 3,000 sq. ft. home in a suburban neighborhood and after being there for a while, you see the “encroachment” of less expensive neighborhoods crop up nearby. Others want to live there too. A new Starbucks brings much more traffic to the streets that feed your once-quiet neighborhood. Suddenly you are what is called a NIMBY. You don’t mind a bit of progress here and there, but Not In My Backyard.
Realtors’ Erin Flaherty explains how, whenever new homes, buildings, or other developments are expected in certain areas, you can count on plenty of locals having strong opinions on the subject, forming a coalition of residents who fight against new construction in their neighborhood.
“NIMBY groups range widely in their size, influence, and goals,” says Flaherty. “Some might oppose a new prison or sports stadium getting built nearby, while others may protest a new high-rise or a bridge blocking scenic views.” In their view, change is not good unless it adds to the value of their homes. Competing ideas and feelings on development can cause heated discussion. Flaherty quotes Al Maiorino, a Boston-based public strategy expert: “There are often competing ideas and feelings on development. Understanding the needs of people, community, and society are critical when analyzing both the pros and cons of NIMBYs.”
So where did this NIMBY phenomenon originate? Flaherty cites New York University historian Kim Phillips-Fein, who says the first iterations of NIMBY appeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Residents battling against environmental dangers near their communities, including the Love Canal toxic dumpsite and the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island began to realize they needed to raise their voices in unison. “Although later it would become a term used critically to connote selfishness, at first people tended to use it to praise community efforts to stop the building of facilities that were thought to bring dangerous chemicals and contaminants into their neighborhoods,” says Phillips-Fein. You can imagine more arguments such as these being applied against places like new airport runways and annoying flyovers, abandoned military bases that left toxic chemicals in its groundwater, and on and on.
In recent times, however, NIMBY battles “have more to do with gentrification and homeownership.” In other words, it’s about property values. Any number of things can cause this to happen, and in most cases, and while it would seem there is little private citizens can do about it except raise the case to modify the original plans, these NIMBYs often carry a lot of clout.
Because of a critical affordable housing shortage in California, NIMBYs fought a proposal to build tiny houses on public land to house 5,000 of the San Jose area’s homeless, while in Los Angeles, they fought to stop the construction of a high-rise that would block views. Meanwhile, in Phoenix, AZ, a “not-mid-century-modern enough” apartment complex came under fire because residents deemed it not congruent with the style of the surrounding neighborhoods. And it’s no secret that some development can be halted by environmentalists not wishing to relocate a rare species of frog and other wildlife from the area.
“NIMBY groups often fight for years to halt plans they oppose, and they are often successful because they feel they are the underdog, fighting city hall. Homeowners claim to be protecting the character of their communities against the greedy developer — a persona that the development community really struggles with. Because they fight change, NIMBYs can also be perceived as having racist or classist overtones in their zeal to keep housing or services for low-income or marginalized groups out of their neck of the woods.
There are many instances in which NIMBY success stories backfire, however. Vital personnel, whose incomes are not in step with the towns in which they work or wish to work in are often left out of the equation. Think police, fire, and public school teachers, for example. All of this can undermine an area’s economic health, safety and prestige as well. Plus, residents may find that barring the construction of new or lower-cost housing in their area can result in labor shortages that, in turn, may cause beloved local businesses to shut down. Everything has a consequence.
Flaherty cites a recent case in Oakland, CA, where both the good and the bad aspects of NIMBY movements involved a controversial cocktail bar. The bar opened in an uptown nightlife-rich neighborhood. But despite the establishment’s popularity among patrons, residents of the mixed-use building where the bar was located banded together to complain to local community boards about the noise and late hours. “The subsequent legal battles caused the bar’s owners to shut their doors amid a pile of debt,” says Flaherty. The irony of it is that because the building is home to million-dollar condos, it was partly valuable because of its proximity to nightlife. One patron summed it up this way on social media: “Don’t move to a nightlife area then complain about the businesses coming into the area.” Conversely, a resident with NIMBY leanings might argue, “How would you like to live upstairs from a bar?”
Realtor, TBWS
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Wymac Capital, Inc.
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Wymac Capital, Inc.
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NMLS: NMLS: 290837 | Broker CalRE: 01150730
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