LULU
n. A real estate development or other construction project to which the local residents are opposed.
Etymology
Examples
2002
At the top of the list presented by the Southern Strategy committee — made up of city, county, School Board and planning staff — is speeding up the widening of Capital Circle, the traffic artery surrounding most of the city. Other recommendations included discouraging unattractive public projects — or LULUs, locally unwanted land uses — that are disproportionately located in the southern part of the county.
—John Fleming, “Commissioners discuss southern strategy,” The Tallahassee Democrat, January 30, 2002
1986
Against these threats we can pose our own evolving vocabulary of barefoot epidemiology (community-based health monitoring), community and workplace right-to-know, toxic torts (the wrongful acts of polluters), compensable injuries (such as sexual harrassment), source reduction (of pollution), "lulus" (locally unwanted land uses), "nimby" (not in my backyard).
—Lin Nelson, “Feminists turn to workplace, environmental health,” Listen Real Loud, April 30, 1986
1981 (earliest)
—Frank J. Popper, “Siting LULUs,” Planning, April 01, 1981
Notes
Thanks to Don Munton for telling me about the Popper article, which is where the term LULU first appeared.