Counter point 1: “the buildings will be ugly and we’ll lose our community”. I disagree. Plenty of cities have common sense laws about how buildings should look. Your community is changing whether you like it or not. I don’t see how tall building erase community. They may change it, sure. But change is inevitable.
Counter point 2: “the increase in traffic will be terrible.” So run bart 24 hours, add more stops, extend the likes and run a train every 5 minutes. upgrade muni with all the extra tax base. Introduce congestion charges.
Counter point 3: “all the housing will go to rich people”. Maybe true, maybe not. But by the basic law of supply and demand, more supply means prices go down. If you build a bunch of luxury appartments, then that willl vacate some supply of slightly less expensive housing, and a trickle effect all the way down. Plus you can mandate controls on what types of units get built. The fact is that rich people like to live in cities, and if you can’t afford to live here then move.
Basically, it’s all possible but because of short sighted stupid policies and whining about “community” it won’t happen.