It is an unfortunate circumstance that there are insufficient student residence spots available at U of T for students who desire them. The Varsity has previously reported on the negative consequences of this in numerous cases. Readers will recall the case of students being forced into the religious Loretto College, or living in substandard rentals near UTSC. Quite simply, U of T needs more housing.

The administration has been attentive to this need. Over the past several years, U of T has worked with Knightstone Capital Management to construct a new 42-storey residence on College Street across from the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

However, the 245 College Street residence has been the subject of determined local opposition by Toronto political forces. They have waged an all-out campaign against the residence, resulting in a major reduction in its height from 42 to 25 storeys. This change will leave hundreds of students looking for rentals every year — students who may have otherwise received residence.

So what is the locals’ problem with the building? Residents have complained about increased noise, changes to the character of the neighbourhood, and even reduced sunlight as reasons for their opposition. Given that the rest of Toronto and the world’s major cities manage to survive similar construction without some sort of a sunlight apocalypse, I’ll assume that this claim comes from desperation.

That leaves the residents with one complaint: the area is further developing as a student neighbourhood. Now keep in mind that this is not some rural community, but a building on a street adjacent to the largest university in Canada and in the downtown area of the country’s largest city. Still, local residents don’t seem to want any more of us.

It’s unfortunate that these people think that the ownership deed of their property somehow extends to everybody else’s land within their political consciousness. However, what is really troubling is how this sort of bigotry is allowed to hold sway. Spadina area activists’ views extended even as far as the Toronto City Council, which opposed the student residence in its entirety. The project was only saved by an appeal to the unelected Ontario Municipal Board, which just approved the project in its truncated 25-storey form.

The lesson here is a sad one. Urban NIMBYism (“Not in my backyard”) is a sort of possessive conservatism. These new conservatives feel that because they were “here first” that they somehow assume oversight of the area, and have no compulsion against trying to shut out those they consider undesirable.

Jeffrey Schulman is a second-year student at Trinity College studying classics.

Correction (July 16, 2014): A previous version of this article contained an incorrect address for the residence.