Consider the question for states or countries. Would it make sense for Massachusetts residents to vote in Connecticut‘s elections? Or Canadian residents to vote in the US’s elections?
"Does it make sense that the people voting today can decide to stop other people from voting here in the future?"
That's what zoning, housing policy and other local government decisions are capable of doing.
Likewise, I don't want non-Americans living in Europe or elsewhere voting in state or federal elections because they might someday choose to become American citizens.
In both cases, those people might vote then end up never following through on their half of the commitment.
It's about whether the people currently living in X should be able to arrange things so that certain other groups of people will be impeded from living in X in the future.
There's clearly room for some debate there: most people would agree that nations can set their own standards for immigration and that these may exclude large classes of people.
However, if a town explicitly said "we do not want anyone who earns less than 400% of median household income to move here", I think that most people would find that at least a little troubling.
There really are not any mechanisms that would allow a US municipality to say that explicitly. However, things like zoning laws can be used to go fairly far in this direction in a more implicit way.
I think that's wrong.
If I live in Ward 10 of the city, why should the people of Ward 11 have any say in the by-laws for a neighbourhood that they don't live in? I'd argue because cohesive planning across neighbourhood boundaries is necessary for a healthy city.
The difference between your position and that of the grandparent is not one of fundamental principle. You're just at different places on a continuous scale.
They do. Residents of Massachusetts, Connecticut and other states all vote for President, Congressfolk and Senators.
For instance, Presidents, Senators, and Representatives are all Federal positions. The states (or for President, the state's electors) get to pick their own representatives, though, and it would be odd for one state to elect another state's representatives to Federal office (e.g. a Massachusetts vote being counted in the Connecticut US Senate election.)
Likewise, all counties in a state vote in State elections, but don't vote in each others' county elections. This goes down the line to cities within counties, districts within cities, etc.
Not that I disagree with your point (it's totally valid to point out that elections from multiple areas can all serve in one body), but I think the question was more about citizens from outside a region voting for policies/representatives within that region.
The municipality is a more or less arbitrary level of aggregation at which to make land use decisions.