Canyon Ridge

[rossjman1 0]

Notes Before I Start

Before I start, I would to like everyone to know that this is my first CJ, and although criticism is encouraged please be nice.

The History of Canyon Ridge

Canyon Ridge, a small town that marks the entrance to the Gyette Mountains National Park, is an easy going community of just over 1,000 souls. Canyon Ridge was founded by mountaineer George Hammond (side note: some of you might remember his role in Jurassic Park, which I just watched the other day). Due to the beauty of the land and proximity to a national park, several restrictions were placed, by the government, on the town.

Rule 1: Air and water pollution must be kept to a minimum.

Rule 2: No urban sprawl. The town must be kept to a reasonable size, and is restricted to certain parts of the map.

Rule 3: Fire Ban: Bonfires and campfires must be restricted to specified camp sites only.

Images of Ridge Canyon

This is an overview of the map that I'm playing on and the existing development of Ridge Canyon.

Here is a close-up of the Hammond Bridge which spans over the Nickel River. The bridge is part of Route 73, but citizens of Ridge Canyon use it on their daily commute to the main industrial park. As a side note, I see there is a brown ugly box on the right side of the picture. Now, I forgot what the name of the bat is, but it allows streets to have parked cars and trees on them. Obviously, I'm missing a dependency, so I'll have to figure out what it is.

Offshooting (is that even a word?) from Route73 is a bridge that crosses the small Gyette River. It is part of Canyon Ridge development. The small industrial park the the bridge connects the main town to is under scrutiny by the government, and no further development of this industrial sector is allowed.

Here is an overview of the town. The towns residents are mostly middle class and enjoy the lifestyle that Canyon Ridge has to offer.

Here is a closeup of the small downtown area. The downtown district is made up of the town water tower, police station, clock tower (bat by jbsimio), post office (bat by jbsimio), and corner shops (bat by jbsimio).

For my next update, I will remember to turn the grid off.

[penguin007 27]

good start here and it looks and interesting cj to follow.

I would suggest a different water mod e.g brigantine by PEG as your one looks very caribean like

Well done though for avoiding the dreaded grid.

Will

[Jazzmaster 716]

Always good to see another cj! It'll be nice to see this one develop; I think I'll follow it. I especially like the custom content in the last pic. I'll go download later.

[Explodingsims 3]

MMMMMMM...Slanty

Looks Nice, I'm looking forward to more!

[scififan68 23]

Nice start! It looks cool! I will be looking foward to see more!

[Schulmanator 5,792]

Cool! Nice start - I like the slanty roads and nice building selections.

I would recommend clicking the little box in the lower left and it will make the display thing go away so you have a clearer shot of your city.

Good work for the first time out! I will be back forupdates.

[rossjman1 0]

Update 1.5

I made a street map for Canyon Ridge (mostly in MS Paint, sorry but it was the easiest).

Thank you to all of those who replied.

[granto93 4]

nice map my friend! i find MS Paint a handy tool to make these little projects....i havent quite adopted the concept of photoshop yet keep up the fine work.

oh yeah, i also like the ruralness of this, RURAL ROCKS

[rossjman1 0]

Update 2: Town Meeting

Notes before I start

I changed something major on my map. In the first update you can see that I was using the default Maxis trees. I have switched and I am now using PEG MTP God Mode Pine Tree Mod by pegasus.

The Update

An ordinary town meeting is overtaken by the townspeople who flocked to the Clock Tower Building in order to discuss future plans of expansion in Canyon Ridge. Also being discussed at that meeting are plans to enact new ordinances.

Ordinance Plan:

Ordinances already in action:

 * Vehicle Emissions Reduction Act

 * Fire ban

 * Clean Air Act

Ordinances up for enaction:

 * Neighborhood Watch - To reduce crime in populated areas.

 * Tourist Promotion Act - To exploit the potential economy boost that the

   towns proximity to a national park has to offer.

Verdict: Of the two ordinances being discussed, only the Tourist Promotion Act was passed. The Town Committe felt that Canyon Ridge needed a boost in commerce, and the Tourist Promotion Act was the right way to go. Unfortunatly, the towns budget will be unable to cope with the strain that a neighbohood watch would put on it.

Expansion Plan:

The proposed expansion plan has 4 phases. They are as follows:

 * Phase 1: Increase the size and capacity of the industrial park to entice possible new residents to Canyon Ridge with manufacturing jobs. This phase is due to be completed in 6 months.

 * Phase 2: Zone a new residential subdivision to be located North-East of Hillside Drive. The proposed size of this development is to house two hundred to three hundred residents. This phase is due to be completed in 9 months.

 * Phase 3: Demolish a small residential neighborhood between Main Street and 4th Street North-West of School Street to allow for more commercial development in downtown Canyon Ridge. This phase should start shortly after phase 2 has started. This phase is due to be completed in 12 months.

 * Phase 4: Develop a new residential neighborhood by the shore of the Nickel River west of Omni Drive. This new residential section should house roughly 100 residents. This phase is due to be completed in 15 months.

Verdict: The expansion plan was heavily discussed and the topic dominated the meeting. After much debate, the plan was passed by a vote of 7 to 3. However, due to budget constraints, the groundbreaking for each phase will have to spread out over more time than was planed.

Change in Scenery

Here are the new trees by Pegasus. I am still debating whether or not to use these. What do you guys think?

Here is the new campsite which should bring tourists to the town. PEG Pine Trails V305 by pegasus, PEG MTP Mountain Trails REC Pack 1 by pegasus, and PEG MTP Observation Tower by pegasus.

Thanks to all of those who read and commented on my City Journal thus far.

[Imprezza05 1]

looks good. you should keep the peg trees lol i like your town centre. In pic 2 of your first update there is a big brown box in the right side of the pic.

I also like the future development aspect of it aswell.

[raikkonen 0]

I likd this cj its more nautral than other cj s because u use some maxis things and thank u for the links of everything that u use

[sims co. 0]

Nice town, I love the mountain trail! 

Keep up the good work

[Abc987 3]

Great update! I think the trees look okay since this area is near a national park. I'd keep them.

[AceofSpades 1]

Great little rural town you have here! I love it.

[rossjman1 0]

Comments:

Imprezza05: Yes, I know. I downloaded that street mod a while ago, and now I can't find it. I posted something on the forums about it, and I'm awaiting a response. Once I find out which mod it was I can then get the missing dependency.

raikkonen: Thank you for your response. I'm looking for diagonal lots to go with the diagonal streets that I laid out, but I can't find any good diagonal buildings that would fit in my city .

sims co.: Thanks! You should really be thanking Pegasus, who made all of the new custom content in this update.

jrhnemo: Yes, the trees do look good, but the only problem I have with it is that they don't go with the street mod I use. If you look at the picture of the town you can see that the trees that border my streets look different than the pine, and I'm not sure if it fits in with the pine setting.

AceofSpades: Thank you for your kind words! I'm hoping to keep the town pretty small for a while.

[Schulmanator 5,792]

It looks like you have a good plan going here.

[scottandselina 0]

This looks like the start of a great CJ. I like your mix of BAT's and original Maxis buildings. I look forward to seeing some expansion!!

[football_fever 6]

Great use of the diagonal streets. Krio recently released some short boxy buildings that look great on diagonals. As far as the trees, there are some great pine trees by...dusktrooper(?) that you can see in CJs like Paradise Falls. They're taller and thicker, and I think they'd look a lot better, especially around the campground (which is also very nice)

And lastly, pressing G will get rid of the grid for the pics.

Actually, lastly will be a suggestion to grab a terrain mod. The Maxis one is good, but for your area the Missouri Breaks mod would be perfect. I'll definitely be following. Keep up the good work

[jacqulina 162]

very nice start my friend,great river you have there,excellent trails great use of pegs things,great work and pics

[marc12345 23]

Nice landscape! This town is great. It's amazing.

Marc

[Peng74 1]

Nice layout of the town rossjman. Its a promising start, looking forward to seeing where it goes. Good map.

[mencc1701 0]

Very nice, I like how this looks so far. Great backstory, too... I love the inclusion of the town planning.

[manman99 2]

yes a very nice start, cant wait to see more

manman99

[Imprezza05 1]

the street mod you used was the " jeronij " street mod

[rossjman1 0]

Comments:

Schulmantor: Actually, I'm making this all up as I go along.

scottandselina: Thanks! I hope that the expansion goes well, too.

football_fever: Thanks for all of the recommendations. I will take a look at the buildings that you recommended. Also, I too think that the peg trees looked to short, so I will look up the trees that you mentioned. D'oh! I keep forgetting to turn the grid off before I take the snapshots, hopefully I will remember for future updates. And, lastly, I will take a look at the terrain mod that you suggested. Thanks for your suggestions and kind words.

jacqulina: Thanks for commenting! I hope to incorporate more BATs as the city grows.

marc12345: Thanks!

Peng74: Thanks hopefully the road network can handle the excess traffic as the city grows.

mencc1701: Thanks! I figured that including the town planning and meeting would give the city a more small town feel.

manman99: Thanks! I can't wait to post more.

Imprezza05: Thanks! I actually just went to SC4Devotion yesterday and fixed the dependency issue.

[rossjman1 0]

football_fever: Hmm, the only thing you recommended that I could find is the terrain mod, and I like it very much. I don't know why I haven't installed a terrain mod yet. The next update should have the new (hopefully great looking) terrain.

Update 3: Phase 1

Eight months after the meeting phase one of the town's expansion plan broke ground. Almost complete now, development of the industrial park has rose the manufacturing jobs by 50%. Phase two and phase three have also broke ground, but that will have to wait until the next update. Until then here are some pictures of the new and improved industrial park.

Featured in this picture is Small Warehouse Pack 01 by simgoober.

These are Rural Stores by simgoober.

For the next update, I will post the finished phase 1, 2, and 3.

[penguin007 27]

Nice update. wouldn't have found out about the warehosues but for it.

Will

[jacqulina 162]

great update my friend coming on well so far,great pics too

[Za 164]

Nice so far. Like the rural sort of feel to it.

[scottandselina 0]

I like all the hills, and that you haven't levelled everything off. It looks cooler this way