ITT: a mix of NIMBYs and people who don’t know how zoning works

There are only 2 things that can't be lawyered out of existence:

1. Buy the land and refuse to sell under any circumstances, but you might get eminent domained (or your local equivalent).
2. Blow up whatever gets built, but then you won't be around to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Basically the only real answer is to be so rich you can out-buy or out-lawyer anyone else.

A bag of white sugar thrown into a cement mixer will prevent the cement from ever setting

Buy the land and put it in a trust, or incorporate and establish zoning laws.

The town im in keeps developing like crazy (for who im not sure, as there's still a decent homeless population and empty housing but anyway)

Supply and demand. Build more and prices stop rising and maybe some people without homes will be able to catch up.

There’s a housing crisis and we need more housing built everywhere. Especially dense, walkable housing. From the sound of it they’re building car-dependent sprawl around you.

Not a lawyer, but the only thing I can think of is if you incorporated and then banned anything like that in the area - but that's a massive amount of lift I'm pretty sure

Try to identify the area as a habitat/ migration route for an endangered species? This is better pre-orange doofus.

You are a NIMBY! Sprawl does suck, I just always think it's funny that people move somewhere they like and then think nobody else will.

Where I live, yes you would have to buy the land, but then can get the government to pay you something back if you promise not to develop it, there is a conservation program to preserve wild land. Maybe there is something like that by you.