Exactly. When they say (gasp!) "sprawl" they mean the house built after theirs.
I was on my city's Parks a Recreation Committee for a while. The city was going to build a park on and old unused piece of property outside the city proper. At the meeting, people who lived around the property showed up, some to complain. One guy who lived across the river from the property stated in on a rant about how he wanted the property returned to nature, (It was a small farm). Another guy piped up "You mean like it was before YOUR house was built". That stopped his rant cold. He sat down a shut up.
Classic.