Billiardsley lite

[psteverific 8]

Just about ten months ago, on christmas day, I launched an ambitious CJ entitled 'the BeRM'
I had worked for some time previous to that, building up a region that would appear "finished", my intention was to grow it from a smaller city to a big city.
I wanted to watch the rural areas being eaten away at by new suburban developments.
I also wanted to have an 'imperfect' city to start out with. I wanted to watch the city overcome the imperfect desisions of past city councillors and mayors.
In the weeks leading up to the BeRM's launch, I put a huge effort in gathering all sorts of details about the city and it's wards. Councillor names, a history of the city, politics between the wards, as well as capturing images of almost every data view in every single occupied city tile. Quite alot of work, belive me.

more my speed. I'm not giving myself any deadlines, no promises involving a heavy workload, no showing evey little change that I make. Just build, and show what I figure is most relevant.
...but I miss Billiardsley. 

a bid, it would have to be with Billiardsley.
Not right away, mind you, there is much to do before that. It will likely be months before I will be able to do that.
So, I'm starting a new journal featuring Billiardsley. Why would I not just continue the old one, you ask? Well, I struggled with that question.

As I stated,I will be taking a more relaxed approach to this journal, but it will not be without some direction.
I will be setting smaller goals as I go along. I have set 6 goals for myself to start out with.
I'm calling it my Mission Statement:





 if you haven't seen the BeRM before, you can see it here:
https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=72070&highlight_key=y&keyword1=the%20berm

And to any readers of my Queenston journal,  it still serves it's role as an experimental journal, and as I have seen, it has taught me alot over the past 10 months.

I hope you'll welcome Billiardsley back after all this time

[jasperdeman.nl 1]

Hey, cool to see you back! Loved the region! Hope this time things go well.

Good luck!

[jacqulina 162]

nice to see you back,great explanation to everything you are planning and have done so far,great pics and some great work so far,great region

[SC4Noobie 5]

I have a feeling this is gonna be so awsome! I really liked the BeRM, and I like Queenstone, and this is gonna be good, as good, or better than them all! Bidding for the SimOlimpics also sounds intresting.

[dedgren 830]

Hey, this looks excellent!

...it's psteve, man- what did you expect?

It'll be great to follow Billiardsley from Day One!

David

[dadyrghluv 8]

WHOA bajesus! hotdamn thats a hell of a region pic u got there. i also have a feeling this is gonna be a killer CJ to come. i wait for more, more, more!

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Nicce to see this revived. BTW, what is the flatiron shaped building atthe top of the page? I like it!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Yay, it's back in a New And Improved Form. Looking forward to seeing what you've got planed for the BeRM.

[owenluby 1]

I just love these types of CJ's... this one reminds me of Myerscough... does anyone remember that one?

Keep it up!

wen

[psteverific 8]

Just when you think you have more time to dedicate to something you enjoy, something comes along and turns everything upside down.

Well, it's not a bad thing, really, just a bit of a wake up call.

My wife sat me down last week and told me she thinks I've been spending too much time on the computer, and she's right, too. My social life has suffered quite a bit for some time now, and although in recent months I have been getting out more, it's really not enough.

So, I've been taking some time off from all things sim city the last little while, hence no updates.

But I'm not quitting, no sir! I'm just going to make an effort to be a little more reasonable about it.

Now, on to the update.

I've chosen to begin with the greenbelt proposal, simply because it should be fairly easy to get done and scratched off the list.

Before amalgamation, the greenbelt was a vision of Yorkshire's that was not shared by Lakeview. Yorkshire tried to establish it's greenbelt around the limits of it's city, but Lakeview's rapid expansion annexed the western edge, leaving it incomplete.

Now, in the newly amalgamated city of Billiardsley, the greenbelt will be revived and extended around Lakeview and out to Parkwood.

The intended function of the greenbelt, along with beautification, is to contain the denser downtown development and to act as a buffer between the city and outlying developments.

It is hoped that developments outside the greenbelt will continue to grow around the smaller towns and hamlets, that they may act as commercial hubs for the various neighbourhoods as they grow. 

Here is an overview of the proposal as it stands.

the area marked in green is the existing greenbelt in Yorshire, the yellow area is the area proposed.

Alot of farms will have to go to make way for this, but it's for the good of the city.

Let's look closer along the proposed area

some of the zoned area's along here have not been built on yet, those can be de-zoned and designated as greenbelt easily enough. As for the already established homes, well, the can stay where they are, grandfathered, as it were.

As the next two pictures show, the belt will follow the main east-west power corridor through much of Lakeview, although it looks like some housing will be displaced

At the northwestern edge of lakeview, the greenbelt can curve around the city qiute naturaly.

A slight jog north into Byroncourt as it extends north of Parkwood

and finaly extending west to the northern tip of High Park (No, not that High Park... ok, it has the same name, and is in the exact same spot, but it's purely coincidence, I assure you!)

And that's the plan. I'll start by adding some detail to the existing part in Queenston, and once done, if there are no objections, the project will commence.

... Oh, and before I forget, thanks for the responses, guys. it's nice to see so many names I recognise from the original CJ.

Schulmanator: Flatiron shaped building? I think you must mean the diagonal building in the first picture, It's the "Thing Theatre", should still be on the stex.

owenluby: I do remember Myerscough, or at least the name. seem to remember it was pretty impressive too, but I searched and it dosn't seem to be here anymore.

[mayorron 0]

Wow, what a sprawl. Looks promising. Keep up the good work. I love the seasonal trees, it gives more color to the city.

[Goin2Chicago 4]

wow. everything looks awesome. the region veiw is very nice and i like the variety of everything. i'd deffinetly like to see a transportation view of your region. can't wait for more!

[jacqulina 162]

beautifull work on those farms the countryside is beatifull,wonderfull pics

[manman99 2]

beautiful work as Jacqulina has said!!!

                         Manman99                 

[psteverific 8]

Thanks for the encouragement.

Goin2Chicago, transportation map coming up...

And on to the update

The proposed greenbelt extention has been approved by city council, without any real reaction from the public whatsoever.

So, the process begins, first in Yorkville ward. Much of the zoned area has yet to be built upon, so this should be quite painless.

The circled area, although inhabited, is highly underused, so it will be thinned out.

over on the otherside of Old Southmarch road, it's a little more straight forward.

Just de-zone the vacant lots

And there's really no need for that street connection with so few residents, I'll just take that out too.

Now I'll just clean it up a bit, move the busstop and plant some trees

Once those trees start to grow up, I'll plant another wave of them, that way there will be trees of different ages mixed together.

Now, the other side of the road.

Basically, I'm going to leave only the houses that I imagine to have foundations. Most of these are little cottages, so they can go

That sure opened up alot of space alright.

Although the circle house has been abandonned, the Billiardsley preservation society requested it be saved. With all the housing around it now gone, I expect this could be a rather exclusive address one day.

and finally, some trees are planted.

You can see the change from the region view. Next, I'll have to shift a bit north and start expropriating some farmland, so I can run it through the narrowest part of the built up area.

And thats all for now.

More to follow soon, see you then

[jacqulina 162]

great transport map,excellent update and pics,great planning,i like how you are laying out your residential,excellent region view

[petriknl 15]

Great agglomeration! Love to see this develop!

[SC4Noobie 5]

Wow, neat stuff! It's gonna be instresting to watch you detail the area, because in my cities, I find I have a hard time adding detail, because I'd have to redesign the whole city do do that. I really like this region, it's great, and I'll keep watching.

[djrules5454 5]

Fascinating changes.

*Bookmarked it*

[Goin2Chicago 4]

that transportation map is awesome. it looks like something you'd se in a real city. awesome pictures as well. can't wait for more!

[Flumes 3]

Looks awesome! This is one of very few large regions I've seen completely (almost) built up, nice job! Keep it up!

[packersfan 667]

this is what I wanted to do with my Cambellsport region, I'm just very slow and impatient...I always wanted to start with a developed region and then build up the city.

[psteverific 8]

Well, I've run into a little trouble with my system lately, seems the fan is mis-aligned (again!), so I haven't ben able to develop Billiardsley that much. However, working in short sessions (to avoid overheating), I've been able to clear out the pat for the greenbelt.
Unfourtunatly, it has meant making temporary consession, though. Because these city tiles are big and well developed, time runs really slow, which means I couldn't let the city run for fifteen years per tile to grow the new trees in a bit. This is something I usually try to do, grow the trees to the first growth stage and then plant a new crop of saplings., it makes the forested areas seem more realistic. This has also meant that I have been less interested in general detailing, because I know I'll have to re-visit the areas later anyways.
Because of this, the greenbelt is not so visible in region mode. Plus, it will only really start to stand out once the suburbs start to grow up to its edges.
I've also altered the route it takes somewhat on the west side of town. It now turns south in the northwest portion of Lakeview and stops just before the freeway in Parkwood.
 
It's a bit more easy to see from the transportations map:

(Please exuse the long delay, system troubles + RLS)
It really dosen't make that much of a difference right now, but as the city grows, that space will be reserved, and once the city fills in around it, it will become quite apparent.
For now, I'm happy with it, and ready to move on.

So I have decided the next step will be the big one, something that has been "planned", in a way, since I first started this region.
The transportation network, and more specifically, the rail network.
As I have said in the past, I pretty much build things how I see them. Originally, Lakeview was a small town, no bigger than six blocks square, surrounded by farmland.
Naturally, rail serviced this area, and as industry was established along the harbour, the rail was extended to service that as well.
And as the city grew, the networks were not upgraded at the same rate as growth.
This is not unusual in the real world, however, my home town happens to be a somewhat extreme case.
In Ottawa's earlier days as Canadas capital city, it was belived that having industry right alongside the Parliament Buildings displayed a strong and stable economy, so there was industry right downtown.
I've been fourtunate to see many arial photos dating right back to 1920, (thanks to a good friend who does environmental assements for a living), and seeing the changes happen year by year was just facinating.
A mill was sitting right behind Parliament Hill, a dump right along side of it (now a parking lot), and, of course, rail connecting through all of it.
It was in the early 1960's that city planners had a new vision for the city. They proposed getting the industry out of the central area, and to build a city of beauty, worthy of a world class capital.
It took years and years, of course. I can still remember seeing the bay behind Parliament Hill filled with log rafts as a boy.
Ahh... but I'm starting to ramble
But one thing I do remember that is relevant, is the rail cutting through parts of town.
Near where I grew up, and only about four km from Parliament Hill was an old CP railyard. In the 60's, they had blasted out a channel for the line going south (think Sunken Rail), but the line going west, and by my neighbourhood was still at grade level.
It wasn't untill I was a teenager that they finally took the heavy frieght trains off of that line, and blasted it out (mining companies love this kind of work) to put in "the Transitway", a busses only sunken road ("Bus Rapid Transit", or BRT system)
And like I say, I build what I see.
Now, back when I first started building Billiardsley, the GLR was just starting to be worked on. Replacing the downtown rail with GLR (and some subway) has been a goal since day one.
And, just like in real life, I'll have a whole mess of problems to overcome, due to the fact that the area is already developed around it.

But, untill I get this fan fixed (Dang Computer!), it'll be pretty slow going.

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull region views

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull region views

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Looks like you have a sound plani n place here. I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with for it.

[djrules5454 5]

From what I see right now of that update, it looks great! Just be glad your PC/Game lets you use tarmac and other airport pack stuff. My game has always crashed to the desktop upon placing tarmac and similar items.

[psteverific 8]

I've finally got a little time to get back to this project, although my system still needs help, which will limit the amount of time I can have it running.

But on to the lightrail plan. 
As it stands, commuter rail service is being provided by ViaRail, an inter-city rail service. Not really cost-effective, so a light rail system is being proposed through the core and around some of the outlying area.
Heavy rail will be re-routed to the port facility as well as around the city, and a new main trainyard and passenger rail station will be built in South Lakeview.
Still disputed is a west end line, although popular among residents many indutries rely on the rail service along the waterfront.


Taking it slow, let's start with a quick 'environmental assesment' of the proposed route, ward by ward.
We'll start with Yorkshire.


Yorkshire is set up quite well for this project. being a planned city, heavy rail cuts through the downtown core below street level, ideal for commuter rail.




At the waterfront, the new lightrail will have to run alongside heavy rail serving the industrial waterfront district and the Port, as well as the Yorkshire passenger terminal.


Further west, the heavy line will end at a second seaport connection, while the Lightrail would continue on into Lakeview.


In the east, a new heavy rail extention would re-route trains around the city center. The new route would cut through the newly established greenbelt ( It's being comprimised already!), and unfourtunatly, a small neighbourhood would have to be removed.


The new rail line will travel north-west along the power corridor where it will cross over into Clippers corners, just east of the point where the new lightrail will cross.


That's all for now.
Lakeview should be up shortly

[RushHourFreak 1]

I am just lovng the region Transportation and map. The downtown is also great. I like how are you handling the city.

Happy Holidays, Can't wait for more

RHF

[Benedict 3,119]

oustanding regional views, and I agree that the transport maps are very realistic for the region - great work!