Is this a way for commercial zoning to finally get off the ground?

It hit me like a megaprim from the sky.

What if LL required all (new) businesses on the mainland to be built at some very high height: 700 meters/1000 meters/etc? ONLY residential builds (and a few exempt businesses, see below) could be placed at ground. Residential builds could be at any height, actually. We wouldn't require existing commercial builds to rise, but all new builds going up would need to go up. Also as land changes hands, as it does, the new business replacing the old business does not replace the monstrosity with another monstrosity, but creates open space (at least visually).

The benefit? Ugly, massive-box stores and clubs would not detract visually from lovely small 1024 plots with cottages surrounded by Linden trees. I've seen people build a fun garden with a little water feature and then suddenly a plywood wall goes up right on the property line, cutting views and boxing the person in. People spend extra Lindens to own waterfront property and then a big box shows up next to them selling zeppelins.

Are there any downsides to this idea for a business owner? Other than a shopping experience not being enhanced by sitting your store next to an SL ocean, I don't see one. It's not limiting what you sell or build. We've simply created a business zone for every sim, only it's a vertical zone. There is not much drive-by business that I know of. If there are window shoppers out there, we keep ALL stores at a certain height and people can just fly around at that height to shop.

Rental housing, boating stores, water parks, water recreation areas and hotels (if there are any) would be exempt.

Sure there are many beautiful store builds and malls. But the scale is often out of sync with residential builds and usually the business does not spend much design thought or detailing on the exterior walls. If most people TP directly to your store's interior, why should you care anyhow about the siding?

And yes, this won't eliminate ugly builds at ground level. You could still build a doublewide, if you really must. But it would open up the views and give more elbow room to all.

What have I missed? What's wrong with this picture?

It's unfortunate that there is no recourse for a resident against a Private Estate owner who rips off the resident. Because other than that glaring- and dealbreaking, to me- fault with dealing with Private Estate owners, they otherwise have the model for solving the ugly problem that we see so much with mainland.

The problem with Linden Lab is that it really doesn't want to pay its staff to do anything on the grid. The idea you suggest, to be effective, would require Linden Lab to pay someone to check compliance- identifying the difference between businesses and residents, and enforcing the height regulations.

If Linden Lab were going to pay staff to enforce more sane zoning on the Mainland, then I think a better method would be the route that some ambitious Private Estate owners have gone. Just create sims that are zoned for commercial, residential, or mixed, and then link them up an in aesthetic manner.

Plus, I wouldn't necessarily agree that residential builds tend to be more attractive than commercial builds. (I'm sure that some neighbors who have seen my residence- which I have built and textured myself- might criticize its attractiveness.) Even otherwise individually attractive residential builds can make for an ugly residential area, if there is no theme to the builds.

It's an interesting idea, but will require Linden Lab enforcement. And if they are going to spend the dollars on staff to do that, then I think that Mainland covenants are the better route to go.

Gravity is wrong with this picture. If businesses needed to be built up high, you'd have problems with people falling out of stores, also the fact that flying gets limited above 300 sq. m. up, so you couldn't fly around the store or club. Then there is teleporting in and that some teleporters don't send you high enough to reach the store, so you'd freefall.

Finally, some people are proud of their business builds and want to show them off where people can fly around them and check out the architexture. I often make jokes about giant, penis-shaped stores, but if someone did make a store that looked like a giant penis, it would take a great deal of work to get the shape just right. Some folks mix art and business in SL. You can't disenfranchise business owners who want a lovely place of business, cause many just don't care.

On private sims and rental land your idea holds merit. I used to do this on my own private sim. My covenant had building standards only up to 300 sq. meters. Above that my renters could build anything. However, as a LL rule, this would be seriously unfair to implement.

The down side is that it eliminates commercial builds that actually try to look nice on the outside of the store, or that try to set up a realistic shopping environment. You can't create a realistic environment with land and water at 700+ Meters. Believe it or not, there are plenty of commercial business ventures in SL that actually are more than a square-sided box full of vendors...

Take a look at the Kyoto BAKUMATSU and Nagasaki BAKUMATSU sims, with their Asian marketplace and harbor.

Take a look at the sim around the House of Zen...

Take a look at Caledon, with it's Steampunk-era stores and streets.

Say goodbye to any hotels, spas, or other commercial ventures that enjoy nicely landscaped grounds...

Bad idea, my friend.

Then again, most people who want to create something that well-themed and beautiful gave up on Mainland a long time ago... Estate owners would be happy to see your proposal go through, as it would drive all the nicer merchants off the mainland and into their arms.

Why just target the commercial buildings and not the massive black castles that dot the landscape?

I agree. I love shopping areas that are landscaped nicely, where I can walk from store to store, sit for a bit and Im, etc. I don't like visiting stores in the sky. And as already stated , there are plenty of residential build that are just as hideous as any Mall or store. And who would enforce it? Or is this something else we would be expected to patrol the grid looking for?

The down side, the problem with this picture, is that it isn't any business of yours (within TOS and CS) what someone else does with their mainland parcel (within TOS and CS). That is the way it has always been, that is the way it should always be.

Ugly is not against the TOS.

You knew you were rolling the dice with regard to neighbors when you bought on the mainland. If you want zoning and restrictions, there are 4 times as many private islands as there are mainland sims. Find one that meets your own rigid, totalitarian homeowners association mentality and go live/shop/sell there.

Leave the mainland alone!

Max

Happy Mainland Owner

my store is at 900 meters and I use a TP to get there, have not had anyone tell me they could not make it to the store...

Rha, the area on the ground at your landing point is nicely built. It's a shame your store isn't there. it would be a more pleasent shopping experience, at last for me.

brenda my store used to be there, I moved it up cuz on the ground level the lag was horrid, at the 900 meter mark it is much less laggy in the store (and that opened up the ground to being the fishing area and now.. the club and events listing area)
which I just got a renter at woot I hope ppl use it, I hate searching through events, but if I can go and just see the ads for events in the event listing area I set up, I will be more apt to go to those events.

Oh and the church was added too, basically when the store was there, none of the other stuff was, the store takes up a huge huge piece of the ground area

so I moved it up and turned that area into what you see now

???

I'm glad I'm exempt, but I think I need to fire the marketing department!

One thing: Don't tell me what I can do with my land, and I won't tell you what you can do with yours.

We could just as easilly require that all buildings be textured neon pink. It may fir your aesthetic, but not everyones. If you don't like Zeppelin stores next to you, buy a whole sim.

I can see your point on the lag issue. It is a nice spot though. Every time I go to your store, I sit down there for a little while.

if they put some land and ocean water up there, i'm okay with it. otherwise, my land, i choose the way it's used.

Wow. There certainly is a lot of emotion regarding any kind of structure/rules for the mainland. Unfortunately, I don't think the mainland is thriving in any way, shape or form.

If your numbers are correct, the fact that people are building estates with serious restrictions and there are four times as many as mainland sims, says quite a bit about what people prefer.

Right now so much of the mainland is pure wasteland. I would say most of it is either devoid of people, up for sale or abandoned. New players wander around, see the lack of people and utter chaos and give up. Remember, we have a customer/player retention rate that is astoundingly dismal.

Yes, LL would have to actually put some resources against it to even test the theory of zoning. And I don't buy the whine that it would be stifling. Putting up challenges/barriers/rules/zones/etc. does not limit creativity. It usually enhances it. Whether they are rules of nature, the number of prims a plot can support or a zoning commission.

I like the idea of visual muting better, honestly. That way, I don't infringe on someone's idea of beautiful and I don't have to see it either.

Thank you Max, you made my day and it is still early!

The problem with this proposal is that plenty of residential builds are ugly too.

yes and quite a few commercial builds are beautiful. The one I have in mind just now is Shiny Things, although I have no idea if that is on mainland or not.

Then there is the problem of how you define residential vs commercial: how many for sale boxes am I allowed to put on my porch before I am considered to be a commercial property? Who would police it?

Personally, spinning ads aside, I quite like the higgledy-piggledy jumbliness of a lot of the mainland, even with the ugly bits, but then I quite like living in South London for similar reasons - there's a sense that the place has grown organically rather than because somebody planned it all.