Ronald Reagan was a great believer in user fees ~ that's the idea that those who want to make use of a government service should pay for it.
Planning and Zoning, although usually not thought of by someone who wants to build or develop as being necessarily good ideas, really do serve to keep the highrise pigfarms out of residential areas.
Rotterdam, Nederland, in fact, recently faced the prospect of someone want to build a 30 story pigfarm, all properly vented, of course, adjacent to a residential area.
$12,000 is less than the price of an Hyundai Elantra, just about the least expensive small car you can get that can seat 5 adults! No doubt the house being built on the lot is going to be worth $100,000 or more when it's done. I would certainly hope I was getting the best talent money can buy in the town's planning office because they're going to be the guys who defend that new house on that lot against other folks in the area who want to do things your brother might think should be farther away!
There was planning and zoning back in the days of small permit fees and one day turnaround for review. Don't give me that malarkey. I built many safe, modern homes that people still habitate successfully. What has changed are the mountainous number of hurdles needed to plat and develop land.
Charge people for the cost of water and other public services including schools. But $100,000 in any locale is government-gone-insane. Between planners, biologists, and lawyers, people have to work at least an extra year in order to pay for the permit that puts zero extra value into a home.