from what?
How about the paranoid body-rockers in Leduc who thought 19 seat turboprops flying between YXD and YYC would bring about some sort of apocalypse and did everything they could to sabotage the Edmonton airport short of laying down some Durandals. Left to its own devices YXD would have retained much of its regional service and remained intensely viable as a commercial airport.
I wouldn't worry so much about YXD being suburbanized so much as just completely ignored.
When it comes to Stapleton, the thirty year master plan has a lot of density, 30,000 residents, mixed use, mixed income, transit, walking, an SSP wetdream - it did not however include this:
Google Earth
But, you go to a city, any city and promise to rapidly build the tax base - they can't resist. Cities just don't have the patience to see such things through.