LL,
Your troubles remind me of the Raffles Hotel development here in Applecross near the Canning Bridge in Perth.
Abe Saffron had owned the site since the 50's or 60's.
In about 2002 I think, he decides to do a high-rise development to ;
(a) capture the uniqueness of the foreshore site
(b) allow others to enjoy the site as their home.
There was a hell of a hullabaloo in the local community, with the blue rinse set, old biddies who fondly remembered the good old days when they used to walk down to the Raff for a chardy and a good knees up with the local lads.
I remember at one stage there, a bunch of them got up and said "Abe, you are destroying our heritage".
He stood up and responded by saying, "Look ladies, I understand you have memories, but I owned the place when those memories were being formed, and the current building on the site doesn't pay it's way, is over 60 years old and costs too much to keep. Now, if you'd like to pay me what the property is worth, you can keep it just how you like it."
Of course, they didn't have two brass razoos to rub together.....but still wanted to dictate what the Owner did with the site. I simply do not understand that logic ??
In the end of course, after all the consternation, all the hand wringing, all the protests, the development went ahead and now it's a very nice place, and a real asset to the community. So much so, it looks like the East Perth development slated to start soon is a carbon copy of what Abe did.
Some people just LLLLUUUURRRRVVVVV to stick their nose in and have a squawk when they have no right to do so.
BTW - on our PPoR, we had one of those heritage return concrete verandah thingoes which the Council was scouting for as a "prime example" of the building efforts in the 30's and 40's. Yep, well that nonsense got the Don't come Monday with the concrete saw hard at work over 3 days. Vamoos !! Gone !!
Now it's a normal looking house and the squirrels who think they know better simply drive on by and leave me alone.