A Developer Stopped

The city of St. Paul has stopped a developer from building an upscale complex in a flood plane. From the NYTimes:

“We started with the previous mayor, and we were in agreement on this,” [the developer] Mr. Trooien said in an interview conducted on the top floor of his office building that overlooks the proposed site, which sits between two major spans over the Mississippi on the more residential south side of the river, opposite downtown. “We’ve done everything we can, but the squishy liberals think small-scale is morally superior.”

The article goes on to state that the developer was looking for government handouts and even admitted that a gradual implementation of his plan wasn't economically feasible:

Meanwhile, the economics of the project caused concern among City Council members. Not only was Mr. Trooien asking for substantial tax deferments, but the entire project was to be built all at the same time, raising concerns about whether a city with a population of 300,000 could absorb it at once.Still, Mr. Aberg and Mr. Trooien maintain that it could not easily have been phased in, and that the economics of a smaller scale project just do not work on the site.

These types hate government involvement in business right up to the point where they get to stick their hands in the cookie jar. Good for St. Paul.