NIMBY is a well known and well used term since the 1970’s for ‘not in my backyard’ and refers to the opposition by residents to a proposal for a new development because it is close to them.
The connotation is that residents believe that the development is needed in society but should be further away, and the acronym SOBBY is to take it to ‘some other buggers back yard.’
In our regional communities we have seen a range of active protest groups in recent years.
The blunt legal fact is that you do have a right to campaign against something locally which you disapprove of. How much this becomes an issue of legality or more an issue of self interest, or even vicarious altruism, is less discernible. For example, NIMBY is sometimes used against dirty polluting industries because it is perceived to be unhealthy to residents. But when NIMBY is used against, say, social housing, then maybe the dissenters are being derogatory and limiting other people’s opportunities.
Some residents can be NIMBY to any change, and this is referred to as CAVE, meaning ‘citizens against virtually everything’, or maybe for Queensland the term BANANA meaning ‘build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything’.
Closer to home, maybe COOLUM is an acronym for ‘Certify Only Ordinary Land Use Management’.
Regarding the development planned for the suburb of YAROOMBA, where both sides have separate interests, the developer might say …’Your At Risk Of Over Managing Building Allowances’, but after resort experience in the last few years locals might say….’Your Another Rank Outsider Organising Monstrous Boorish Architecture’.
I found all of these acronyms (except for Coolum and Yaroomba, of course) in other articles, so lighten up, it’s just TIC – tongue-in-cheek!
Adrian runs the local firm Archicology Architects.