Ridgemont Rejects New Residents

I'm going to preface this post by saying I know nothing about this City Vista development other than today's news snippet in the Post-Gazette.

"The project initially involved nearly 500 residential units and 26 acres -- 10 of those in the City of Pittsburgh. After complaints from the city's Ridgemont residents, the plans were revamped to include only Green Tree at this time. Developers may revisit plans to expand City Vista into Pittsburgh"

But let me get this straight. A developer wanted to build a cross-city-border development in 10 acres of the city and one neighborhood turned it down. How about we raise taxes on Ridgemont residents since they clearly don't want an influx of property taxes and new resident wage taxes into the city coffers. Maybe they're not being taxed enough?

Let's look at the census assessment of Ridgemont:

Its population as of the 2000 census was 530 people. Down from 590 in 1990 and 884 in 1940. Of its 223 housing units, only 2 units were vacant which is an impressive statistic. Of those units a mere 26 (or 11%) are renters. Sounds to me like Ridgemont is fine with the status quo. They don't want any renters invading their peaceful neighborhood.

I understand that not every development is worthwhile, but when your neighborhood is losing population and your city is struggling, it is the time to welcome new housing stock. Let's hope when the developer comes back and wants to expand again, Ridgemont has the common sense to work with the developer.