> Ultimately we can't stop Oleary from building this. It's his legal right to do what he wants with his property.

When there is political will we can absolutely restrict people from doing things with their property. This is the entire premise of zoning laws among other regulations.

Whether the political will in your specific case has reached that point is another issue, but in many cases it seems to be approaching that level, especially where existing or proposed developments seem like they will directly impact the community that's already there.