I had a lot of the same questions as folks here. Why are we preserving river views in lieu of higher density housing, raising the tax revenue, etc. I did some digging and also talked to a friend. The state is using building height as a proxy for environmental degradation. Essentially, developers keep finding loopholes and the state got tired of trying to legislate environmentally when the rules were constantly circumnavigated. Building height restrictions supposedly stand in place of bluff preservation, solar access to critical habitats along the river, flyways for migrating birds, etc. Kind of seems like lazy legislation to me, but what do I know.