There are many cities where these permitting and zoning laws work as a subsidy for wealthy people. For instance, they do not want walmart and they do not want more apartments built in my town (which is a very liberal university town) because they want to "preserve its character"... but they go way overboard.
The effect of this is that home prices go up significantly and they profit when they sell.
This seems to be common among towns up and down the west coast. I've seen it in California, Oregon and Washington.
Artificial constraint on the supply of homes means more homelessness, but also, more returns for homeowners there.
So, they have a financial incentive to vote to prevent these apartments from being built.
And I'm talking $600-$1,000 a month apartments, not even cheap housing.