They did choose to live that way, by default. They must have been disengaged from their local political process...how many of the people now complaining attended any of the hearings at the P&Z meetings or lobbied for land development regulation changes? By and large development is a local process and does respond to the electorate.
No. They did lobby and fight. They showed up at planning commission hearings and screamed. But their desires were overridden by state legislators in Richmond who are owned by developers. In Virginia recent Virginia Supreme Court decisions confirmed that Richmond's power supercedes that of local government on such issues.
I am sorry to say that many of the pro-growth legislators are Republicans, and some people voted for them only because they could not endure the detestable Democratic candidates who might have put more of a brake on development. It's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation.
Yup, by not making a decision, one indeed makes a decision.