There are a lot of things that matter more than window styles and paint colors, and they can have a severe negative impact on quality of life and property values and safety.
Re: property values: who cares? Again, I don’t find this even remotely compelling when weighed against the rights of property owners to do what they want with their own property. Again, I understand why rational actors want to protect the value of their property. But we shouldn’t assist them as a matter of policy.
(And this is really neither here nor there, given my stance, but property owners actually tend to be very bad at knowing what’s going to negatively affect the value of their properties over the long term. Allowing more density would increase values, in most cases, yet homeowners universally oppose it.)
Re: safety: sure, there are some reasonable safety rules. Those aren’t what we’re talking about here.
(And this is really neither here nor there, given my stance, but property owners actually tend to be very bad at knowing what’s going to negatively affect the value of their properties over the long term. Allowing more density would increase values, in most cases, yet homeowners universally oppose it.)
Re: safety: sure, there are some reasonable safety rules. Those aren’t what we’re talking about here.