I agree with you, but that opinion is likely in the minority these days, where anyone who has a dissenting view is open to all sorts of abuse. I've been to city council meetings in support of neighbors a few times over the decades, and it is difficult to take a stand against the big money projects, even when all of the zoning and laws are on your side.
Watched a Big Ten VB match last night where R2 got confused during a tOSU challenge, ruled that a PSU shot was out as the Buckeyes were claiming, but then proceeded on the path that would have been taken had the ball been in. For some reason, none of the other officials nor the coaches caught the error in real time, a few more points were played, and finally, an official at the table pointed out the problem. Once points have been played with the wrong team serving and in the wrong rotation, you can't truly put everything back to how it should be. Initially, tOSU got the very short end, but after they tried to rectify things, Penn State got a circumstance that was worse than had the correct call been made initially. In the St. Thomas case, it seems better to figure out whether you can legally put an arena in a location before you start firing up the Zamboni. Speak now or forever hold your peace, and all that.