They are not the enemy. But this is business. Entities in business will always try to gain the advantage to maximize their profits. To expect otherwise is foolish.

If they can convince gov to help them so much the better.
However, if this is what they expect to use to justify their decision to give the developer what they want I think it was a waste of time.
And money.

Oh and a gracious tip of the top hat to DM. Moderator par excellence. Here’s toast of St. Bernardus straight from the Brick Store to you sir or mam.

If we’ve reached the point of war, the suggestion that the developer is the “aggressor” is ludicrous. If we need a fall guy, it is our own inaction in demanding an appropriate code overlay for certain transitional parcels that would, gasp, align a developer exercising their options with results we’re actually comfortable with.

Oh, but that leaves us without a boogey man. So let’s go back to blaming the developer or the city. That’s a lot easier.