the magic fix for the dev server's bullshit

bootstrap.py

import sys

if 'lib' not in sys.path:
    # Add lib as primary libraries directory, with fallback to lib/dist
    # and optionally to lib/dist.zip, loaded using zipimport.
    sys.path[0:0] = ['lib', 'lib/dist', 'lib/dist.zip']


class AppBootstrapper(object):

    @classmethod
    def prepareImports(cls):
        if 'lib' not in sys.path:
            sys.path[0:0] = ['lib', 'lib/dist', 'lib/dist.zip']

        from webapp2 import RequestHandler
        from webapp2 import WSGIApplication
        from google.appengine.ext import webapp

        webapp.RequestHandler = RequestHandler
        webapp.WSGIApplication = WSGIApplication

        return cls