I've never understood that. If people want to buy your single-family home and build a $1 billion skyscraper with 10000 units, surely it's worth more than if the law prevents that construction?

If you had a single-family home in the middle of Manhattan, it'd be worth a lot just from the land. It seems like you'd want to encourage the city around you to be as highly developed as possible if money was the main concern.