[graemep]

I was thinking of sprawl with regard to the instances when these are valid objections.

With regard to the environmental impact, I was not thinking about climate change but things such as endangering habitats of rare species.

[davidw]

Most NIMBYism isn't about sprawl - at least in the US. It's about stopping the types of housing that use land more efficiently from being built within cities, and therefore actually reduce the demand to grow outwards.