People actually do crowdfund that kind of thing. You just do not hear about them as much because they do not have a PR budget. But there is a basic asymmetry here. One approval can be worth millions to a single company, so spending serious money lobbying for it is a good investment. For the neighbors, the harm, which includes noise, air pollution, and lower property values, is spread across hundreds of families. Everybody loses a little, even if the total harm is huge, so it is much harder to raise the same money. That is the classic collective action problem And residents are not lobbying for a handout. They are asking the government not to let a company profit by putting its costs on people who get none of the upside