CA currently has a large glut of the “underused commercial areas typically reserved for retail, office and parking.” that this bill specifically targets. We have an immediate housing crises. With more remote jobs, this bill is a positive step.

Those single family & low density areas are already the most resistant to any sort of medium and high density housing. They drag out court battles for years & we have a housing crisis that needs to be immediately addressed now. This bill also won’t prevent change from ever occurring in those areas either.

Many of the low density areas also have the least amount of access to public transit that those in affordable housing units benefit from the most. This will create more mixed use areas if anything.

“Abandoned malls should be torn down and turned into parks and other types of public spaces.” that’s a nice idea but even so “abandoned malls” are usually still owned and not public property this allows owners )who often don’t want to sell) more flexibility that’s beneficial for the community. If they were turned into parks, they would likely have to be purchased with public funds. Meanwhile, we still have a housing crisis with people already sleeping in the parks we do have because of a lack of housing. I would still love to see more urban parks, however CA in general, does have a large amount of public parks & land.