The lost opportunity for a NW GA airfield (such as the SE's Biggin or The Bush) was of course Woodford. It was worth more as house building land than as an airfield so that's what happened. A valuable piece of aviation infrastructure which would cost millions to build was destroyed for housing.
But surely, Biggin and The Bush are worth more as development land than as airfields? Yet they prosper. Whoever owns those large tracts of land doesn't sell out to developers.
Is it that the planners in NW are vision-less or in the palm of the developers while planners in SE are not? If that's not the reason, what is?