I mean, this is good progress, but very little of Berkeley was zoned single family anymore anyway. Basically just up in the hills. Everything near campus was already multi-family, and if it wasn't the city council would approve a zoning change for anyone who asked.
The supposed reforms should also loosen regulations in R-1A and R-2 zones, which are much larger. The press coverage of this is garbage. Read the actual resolution.
But yeah I think in practice the bigger question is whether Berkeley will streamline the process for replacing single-family houses with apartment buildings. AFAICT that is technically permitted but the approval process rejects the vast majority of applications.
Right, but you wouldn't build apartments in most of the pink area anyway, because it's all up in the hills. The part of the city that anyone would want to build multi-family on is, for the most part, already zoned for it.
In practice, reforms like this are more impactful when combined with density bonuses and ministerial approvals for housing proposals if the city is behind targets. Both of those are already in play in California.
https://www.cityofberkeley.info/gisportal/