Covenant discussion?

As you are most likely aware, the use of land in Neualtenburg is subject to a set of limitations and rules inscribed in a system of covenants. There is the universal covenant, which applies to all land in Neualtenburg and further a subset of more locally applicable covenants, which may apply to zones or even specific plots of land.

Undoubtedly, the covenants are an irreplacable system of insuring that Neualtenburg develops aesthetically in the direction that the community would like to see it develop. The system of covenants has in combination with the guild and the deeds enabled us to establish a transparent process that succeeds in keeping our community free of obvious eyesores and visually more or less cohesive.

However, it seems to me there are a few issues about the system of covenants that might well merit some thought or further discussion. In the below I'd like to bring these to the attention of the forum:

1. Re-zoning

The recent discussion on zoning in the RA seems to have pointed in the direction of a more fine-grained distinction between zones both within the city walls (marketplatz/non-marketplatz) and in the future potentially for sims that we will acquire or even mainland colonies. To my recollection the discussion on zoning has been mostly focused on the possibility for a further differentiation of land fees. However, it would seem natural to me to take the opportunity to see if it would be feasible to also let the new more fine-grained zoning be reflected by way of having different covenants for each zone.

2. Amendment process?

This however brings in the question of whether there exists a process in the current system of government by which the covenant may be amended? The current document specifies that all covenants are subordinate to city laws and zoning guidelines. The question remains however whether this is a mandate for amending the universal covenant and if so, who may do it if necessary? Personally, I'd be inclined to think that this passage enables the RA to amend the covenant if they can muster a simple majority, but others may not agree with this interpretation. Ideally, there should be a well-documented and transparent process for suggesting and confirming changes to the covenant when the need arises. It would seem a bit strange to have covenants with a rigidity even stronger than the Constitution in my view.

3. "Commercial activity"?

With Frank Lardner's recent post on what kinds of business that Neualtenburg might feasibly attract my eyes were opened to the fact that commerce in Neualtenburg need not be and in fact is not limited to retailing stores on the Marktplatz. In fact the concept of business may be much wider than the traditional conception of malls, shops, clubs, casinos and massage parlours.

In fact there exists already a whole different group of commercial activities both within SL and possibly within Neualtenburg as well: Architects meet with clients to discuss plans for their homes; designers rezz and texturise prims from workshops in their homes; Notaries notarise documents, real estate dealers meet with clients to negotiate land prices, rental rates and conditions, business mediators perform arbitration for a fee, schools offer courses in return for tuition, in-world newspapers and magazines interview sources; type up articles and sell advertisements, bankers meet with lenders and borrowers; perform credit evaluations and business people in general enter into agreements for the delivery of services and/or goods. It seems to me that the categories of business we are trying to attract are most likely to fall in this later category and I wonder whether it would not make sense as a consequence to look at the definition of 'commercial activity' as it is used in the current covenants and try to distinguish it further so as to perhaps introduce the possibility for certain types of narrowly-defined commercial activity within the zones that are today exclusively residential?

I am of course not proposing that we should allow for a strip club to be built in the 'bavarian' zone but it occurs to me that the type of residents we'd like to attract might well be professionals in trades with low traffic, a sparing use of prims and scripts; who would like the opportunity to place their office in the Neualtenburg sim without being confined to a 144 sqm city house where it may be difficult to get room for much more than a desk and a Pear computer

I am at work so I dont have the time to comment specifically on all these points but I would like to mention that I am very interested in the Linden emphasis on "covenants" as they apply to Neualtenburg and its future.

I am currently looking at the Nburg TOS document which I think has some serious wording and definition problems and hoping to make some posts on that for discussion in regards changing/altering some of the terms (through future Bill proposals).

It's an ongoing process, but I am currently of the opinion that the Nburg TOS and the main document we refer to as the our Covenant both cover aspects of what LL seems to think a standard "estate covenant" would contain. Since, when our documents were written we had no idea that the word "covenant" would be used by LL in such a specific way, we also have references to "other covenants" in our documents that makes no sense in this new context.

I would like to clean up all this language so that things are not so confusing.

My tentative conclusion at this point is that perhaps a single "Neualtenburg Covenant" should be written that contains most of the information from the Nburg TOS, the Nburg Covenant and the Nburg Philosophy documents.

This is because the Nburg Covenant can be seen as our "rules and regulations" kind of document, because those rules grow out of our Nburg Philosphy document, and because the majority of the Nburg TOS deals with a citizens rights and responsibilities and the conditions under which they can be expelled/disciplined. I think there is a fairly large amount of extraneous material that can be trimmed (especially from the TOS), and that the documents could easily be conbined into one rational easy to read and agree to "Covenant" (in the LL sense of the term) that members can agree to when they buy in.

If we do it right, it could be the model for a lot of future covenants in that LL is pushing this idea strongly.

Some of the stuff you mention is more properly covered by the Constitution and any documents relevant to the government structure which should be seperate from the basic covenant IMO.

This is the second time I've seen this example mentioned in the important discussion of adding commercial vitality to Neualt.

I've been a professional architect in SL for over a year now, and am currently working on my fourth full-sim job, so my comments on this example might be helpful.

To illustrate, have a look at post number 239 here, and compare it to the typical offering of business premises in Neualt. If you were a professional architect meeting with a client or stakeholder group, which would you choose -- a recent example of your own work, as shown in that image, or typical business premises in Neualt?

I'm not qualified to comment on the other examples you've listed, but several of them have elements in common with the case of the professional architect. These would be commercial activities like financial services and developers conducting serious meetings with stakeholders where considerable money is on the table. In FL people holding this sort of meeting tend to prefer a setting with gravitas, such as a boardroom in a historic landmark building located in a prestigous financial district. SL is different in terms of avatar requirements, camera angles and opportunity to showcase original creativity, but human nature is the same.

Neualt's Bavarian theme has a picture postcard charm and the non-Bavarian builds are fun to explore. But in my personal opinion Neualt doesn't look like a high-powered financial center.

I would probably choose the former although the ideal in my view would be that there is not a dichotomy between the two.


Well, I'd say that positioning Neualtenburg as a hub of commercial activity should predominantly be based on a stable framework of legality, co-decision, transparency and the facilitation of trust. When that is said I also think it might be possible to open up certain areas of the sim - such as the ones currently listed as being only residential - to a greater freedom for commercial activity that falls within those areas white-listed by Frank.

I'd hope for it not to result in a rapid hyper-urbanisation of the areas outside the city walls with high rise buildings or other characteristica of 'high-powered financial centres' of RL. In any case I think those RL high rise buildings are only there in the first place as a result of the value of land in the inner cities having risen to enormous proportions due to the peculiar economy of logistics in a world without teleport and flight.