Urban-Only areas

For the last few months i've slowly noticed a small phenomena: Land owners selling tiny strips of land near parcels to shop vendors, who setup vending machines and advertisments near homes.

So one moment your house is near a lake with a few other quiet houses and the occasional party...

.. the next week: neon signs, spinning ads, and chatty vendors trying to sell outfits and vehicles - about a square or two from your walls.

On another occasion, afew months back, when I looked for my first land.. I almost bought a 512 parcel with a good view at the ocean.

Almost, since 15 minutes before I bought it, someone bought the parcel infront of me and promptly placed a pre-fab 2-story mall - effectivly putting the parcel between a high rocky wall that I couldnt terraform, and a mall.

So here's the question: While random, undesignated land is fun for setting up random projects and constructs, it becomes more of an issue when you happen to "live" in the area. Thats when your neigbours and type of items near your parcel actually begin to matter.

I noticed that there has been afew locations where people tried to setup a specific theme or design to the region unofficialy... how about having more actuall official Sims dedicated for urban living and no obvious, noisy "Vendor depot" or shops?

I think that something like this can only help in the short and long term. And i'd definetly move my house to one of those.

I love the idea of urban only sims.

This is currently available in Brown, and I believe there is a real nice ~1200sm parcel up for sale there. There are strict residential zoning guidelines and any commercial activity takes place in a dedicated market in the center of the sim.

I understand what you are looking for and that is why I live there.

Boardman is also a very quiet urban sim with zonning for residential only (identical to brown actually). I have lived there since December of last year. I have noticed there are some auction plots in Boardman now.

One word - zoning.

I had a nice 1024 m lot in Brown, right on the Sim edge. I had lived there for several months. One day I logged on and see a new landscape out my back door. They added another sim. The next day I logged on and there are huge buildings and a giant flat mesa with signs on it saying "Sandbox". There were pieces of objects all over the place that people using the sandbox just left. This distressed me so much I immediately sold my land for half what it was worth and moved to another sim. I had a great view out my deck there too. Guess what happened....

I think residential zones are necessary.

How is zoning regulated though? Cant people build whatever they want wherever they own land?

Not in urban sims, no.

Off the top of my head, the restrictions are:

No "wild" builds (IE, no floating buildings)

No commercial buildings (Clubs, stores, etc)

No tall buildings (15 meters I think is the limit, or about 3 stories)

No terraforming of the land.

No signs.

Ahh, coolness, how do you know if a Sim if flagged Urban?

Urban: Dowtown LA, San Francisco, New York, DC, Detroit, Chicago... lots of tall buildings, noisy night clubs, and bars. The term "urban jungle" describes this kind of area.

SUBurban: quiet neighborhoods, childen who can play in the streets without getting shot at, and zoning restrictions that make Karl Marx look like an Anarchist.

Rural: countryside, trees, open land, horses, and the occasional pond or lake with (gasp) real fish in it.

I've lived (rl) in areas that would fit all 3 descriptions. There are days I miss the energy of urban living, and the quiet of country life. It's the suburbs that attract most people. They can own their own little stake of Terra Firma, yet still be close to work.

Allright, just ditch the word "urban" and stick with "planned enviroment"... I hope thats the right term.

English is not my primary language so the words I use may not have the exact meaning I intended to have.

I dont know if SL should follow RL building style restrictions to the book, as VR is a different sort of enviroment from RL in more then one way. But being able to limit commerce to specific zones, letting people to have some space between neigbouring parcels, and having some basic restrictions against noisy structures could probebly help alot.

I hope I didn't offend, I wasn't trying to. I was just confused by what what you said, until I realized you meant something else.

Sometimes, I think that Zoning is the bane of free enterprise. Let me give you an example: in my county, it's illegal to store any work related materials at your home. This means that guys who work at jobs that don't really require an office (like electricians, plumbers, on-site computer guys) STILL have to lease an office or a warehouse. It also puts an end to the traditional practice of owning a shop downstairs and having your apartment upstairs.

But the other side to zoning is that it does allow for "uniform" neighborhoods. My personal opinion is this: LL could take requests for land of various types. The next sims to be opened up would contain that kind of land.


Either way, it should be a choice, and plenty of zone-free land should be made available.

For example, LL could give us a list of options:
Options (Check one or both)

1. Zoning restrictions
   
2. Themed area
   [/list=1]
   
   Zoning
   1. commercial
      
   2. suburban residential
      
   3. city
      [/list=1]
      
      Terrain
      1. Tropical
         
      2. Desert
         
      3. Prarie
         
      4. Northern forest (like Alaska/Canada)
         
      5. Mountains (like the Alps)
         [/list=1]
         
         Theme
         1. Sci-Fi
            
         2. Modern World
            
         3. Fantasy
            
         4. Frontier
            
         5. Asian
            [/list=1]
            
            The Lindens could then collate these responses and give the people what they want. Just like the recent recall election, you have to say *yes* or *no* in addition to picking which zoning or theme you want an area to have. Placing "no theme" as one of the options gives it a 1 in 6 chance, instead of the more fair 50/50 chance. Same with zoning.
            
            Also, L4L shouldn't be given in zoned or themed land. If L4L people want to live in a zoned community, then they can trade or sell their starter plots and move in to the zoned areas.

Brown, Boardmen and Deharo are all zoned sims... just like aqua and tan were "shopping" pricey land sims.. This changed with 1.1 as did many things..

They did bother with zoning of new sims cause who really wants restrictions when your paying USD$

You don't have to zone the whole world, just a few sims for people that just want a nice house that's not next door to some huge mall or club.