Which California cities have municipal strategies for reusing former big‑box or department store sites?
Executive summary
California has both top-down interest from state lawmakers in converting empty malls and big-box sites into housing and a patchwork of municipal efforts and local examples — from Torrance’s policymaker advocacy to reuse projects or plans cited in Burbank, San Diego County cities (Chula Vista, La Mesa, Oceanside, National City), Riverside, Buena Park and others — but the available reporting documents examples and proposals rather than a definitive statewide inventory of municipal strategies [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. State-level push, local implementation
State lawmakers have actively considered converting shuttered shopping malls and big-box stores into affordable housing, explicitly encouraging local officials to decide which sites fit redevelopment goals, a policy conversation reflected repeatedly in reporting and opinion quoted from local council members such as Torrance’s Mike Griffiths [1] [2] [6].
2. Southern California and Burbank as a visible example
Reporting highlights specific Southern California sites and proposals: a high-profile planned reuse referenced in coverage is the large IKEA development in Burbank, which illustrates institutional reuse of big footprints in the region and signals municipal willingness to repurpose former retail parcels when market players align [3].
3. San Diego County and multiple municipal examples
San Diego-area reporting frames former big-box sites as attractive for reuse due to land scarcity and market demand, and it cites explicit local examples such as an Albertsons site in Chula Vista and closed Toys “R” Us locations in La Mesa, Oceanside and National City as part of the county’s inventory of repurposable properties; the county’s news outlets have covered both active conversions and parcels that remain hard sells on the periphery [4] [7].
4. Riverside, Buena Park and vaccination/temporary reuses
Non-housing reuses are part of the municipal toolkit: a former Sears parking lot in Riverside was repurposed as a vaccination site during the pandemic, and coverage calls out a closed Sears in Buena Park as emblematic of the mall vacancies that cities are being asked to address — these show that some municipalities use big-box assets for short-term public health or civic functions while considering longer-term reuse [5] [2].
5. Municipal policy variation and regulatory response
Local governments take very different approaches: some cities have moved to encourage adaptive reuse or to make big-box sites available for housing or last‑mile distribution, while other municipalities impose new restrictions on large-format retail through local ordinances — reporting names La Quinta and Palm Springs as places that have granted approvals for big-box supercenters even as other jurisdictions limit such development, underscoring a fractured municipal policy landscape rather than a single statewide program [8] [9].
6. Labor, housing advocates and the political tensions at city halls
Coverage warns that repurposing proposals can pit affordable-housing advocates against labor and unions, a political dynamic that plays out at the municipal level as mayors and council members balance local control, jobs retained by retail, and housing goals — reporting quotes Torrance’s local leadership and highlights these tensions as a recurrent obstacle to straightforward municipal reuse strategies [1].
7. What the reporting does — and does not — prove
The assembled articles document a set of municipalities with active reuse examples, pilot projects or policy debates (Torrance, Burbank, San Diego County cities including Chula Vista, La Mesa, Oceanside, National City, Riverside, Buena Park, La Quinta, Palm Springs), but none of the sources provides a comprehensive list of every California city with a formal municipal strategy for big-box reuse; they supply illustrative cases and state-level policy momentum rather than an exhaustive municipal registry [1] [3] [4] [2] [5] [8].
Conclusion
Municipal strategies in California are local and uneven: reporting shows a mix of explicit reuse projects, temporary civic uses and active policy debate across multiple cities — Southern California and San Diego County figure prominently in the coverage — but researchers seeking a complete statewide catalog will need to supplement these journalistic examples with targeted municipal planning documents and housing authority records because the sources reviewed stop short of a systematic inventory [1] [3] [4] [2] [5] [8].