multi level parking, 2-3 story housing built over existing mall, build high rise housing in unnecessary parking areas, put some grass/parks in. not sure why this is complicated.
To start, malls tend to be built on highways removed from a municipality's center. Many of the people in this area will need certain amenities (for example, schools) and will have commutes. The entire surrounding area would have to be redesigned before you can plop 2,000 new residents in an empty lot.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but making something more desirable is more complicated than just rezoning. And making something less desirable could be absolutely dystopian.
The mall is perfectly suited to adapt to 2000 new residents; shift one store to a grocery, one to a daycare, and you're 90% of the way to rebuilding a nice little town center that lets people live most of their lives without a car.
The real problem is the planning profession, which has taken to such micromanagement of central planning that there's no way to dynamically adjust spaces to better uses. In my local downtown area, there are extremely strict rules about which type of retail are allowed where. And how close to which corners. It's a disaster.
They're trying to do that with a local mall. One of the main objections of the city council is that new residents cost them money in terms of necessary services like schools, whereas the mall itself is a cash cow because of the sales tax, with minimal city services for the mall.
It's taken as a given that housing is generally too expensive for the mall workers to live nearby...
IMHO, if you're presenting a solution with the length and grammar of a telegram, it's probably more accurate to say, "however, this is surely more complicated than I understand."
It's not technically complicated, but it is politically complicated, because you're fighting against vested interests who desperately and selfishly want to stop you.
Yeah my local mall is doing this. If they can pull together some tasty and healthy-ish options at the food court the mall could get a lot of traffic just from lazy people trying to get an easy dinner.
That would probably require demolishing or substantially remodelling existing buildings. At which point it's probably cheaper to build on an empty lot.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but making something more desirable is more complicated than just rezoning. And making something less desirable could be absolutely dystopian.