Encouraging development fixes numerous problems:
The politician's incentive is to hide costs—to cave to the neighborhood's demands for less development and then try to mandate affordable housing through still more new rules. I'd argue to politicians that this is all making their city less efficient and their lives more difficult. New growth will ultimately make other problems easier to solve, by supporting the local economy and increasing the tax base. That creates less demand for interventions to "focus on jobs" or dig up tax revenues through new gimmicks. And it creates more room to satisfy local demands for amenities like well-cared for parks and infrastructure. A city that can find ways to accommodate new residents with new development will have an easier time addressing other typical civic problems.
The Dish 