In NJ I suspect a county or municipal official's economic analysis frequently stops at "how much will I personally make from this?" but I am a grouch.

Yeah, I live in one of those more rural areas of NJ and that about sums it up; there's a really good open space and farmland preservation program that saved one farm and created a county ag center…and then right across the street someone sold out to Toll Bros. and there's a huge ugly development going up.