What's this "Renovate" garbage?

I recently decided to restructure my Sunny Isles region, because I didn't quite like its current setup. I started out by removing the roads, so I could restructure and move everything around. I went in expecting my happiness score to plummet, because my services would be cut off for a while, but that should be no big deal.

Apparently, there's a feature that just locks buildings in an "abandoned" state after they've been out for a while. I'm pretty certain this is a relatively new thing, since I've done major restructurings like this in the past without anything like this happening. Worst part is renovation costs resources that I should be directing toward building and upgrading other buildings but the rewards are basically non-existent.

Does anyone know a way around this or should I just demolish the buildings and build new ones? Why am I being punished for trying to redesign and optimize my city?