As undeveloped land, it probably had a low tax rate anyway.
The urban sprawl is horrible. This keeps some land out of the hands of the developers and makes the quality of life somewhat decent.
It’s very unlikely there would have been development there. From the 1950s to the 1970s they tried to do developments in spots like that, and it wouldn’t work. Things like the steep terrain and inability to get water etc. made it impossible. The Sierra Azul Open Space is on land that they want to make a development, but the project was never able to get off the ground.