Growth Trouble

[Jimmyneutron 0]

I am currently operating on a large city tile and am finding hard to grow my residential population past about 60,000.

I have nearly maxed out Residential and Commercial Demand, and also Moderate Industrial demand.

The current populations are approximately:

R - 59000

C - 20000

I - 24000

I have recently connected and built other cities within the region in the hope that they will help grow my main city - there are 4 of these with a total residential population of around 50,000, plus industry and commerce.

Anyhow, in my main city on the large tile:

I have zoned for low density residential which isn't growing, and turned some of my low density residential into medium density, which also hasn't worked. I have also placed parks in the areas not growing, along with services such as schools and clinics, along with bus stops. I have checked the desirability and it is also coming up as very desirable in these areas.

I have heard something about demand cap mods but i'm not sure what that means, and if they would help considering i already have high demand.

Can anyone explain why it isn't growing, and what I can do to make it grow? I am aiming to increase the population to around 80,000.

Help is much appreciated

[s_olah 87]

Make sure you have a good transportation system, and the commute times are not high. Demand caps are maxed out usually when you don't have an appropriate education or heath system. Try achieving a high level of education, and health, try developing more of the neighbouring cities. You have to have a higher population in your region so your cities can develop properly.

[Jimmyneutron 0]

Thanks, I will have a look at the commute times. I'm operating a relatively spread out city. My region population is just over 100,000 in this one so i will also try developing the region a little more. My education and health systems are exception, I may have even over-invested to try and stimulate growth as I knew this was a possible solution.

I am now having the same problem (can't grow over 60k residential) in another city that is a part of a region with a population over 600,000. The transport is better developed in this one so I am not sure this is the problem. Any other tips?

[SC4BOY 20]

If you have positive demand, you aren't capped. When R won't grow, but you have positive demand either desirabilities aren't adequate or as mentioned, you have poor job supply, the wrong mix of jobs, or transport problems with respect to where the sims want to go.. when those conditions are filled they will always develop quickly as long as zones are available.

[xenxander 0]

If you are also getting the "Parks a plus" or "activists demand equal air time" then you need to build a few parks or flower gardens. True as mentioned if demand is positive you aren't 'capped', so you don't really need 'relief' but property value can play a role as can desirability.

[Jimmyneutron 0]

Hmm i'm confused. I swear i'm doing all the right things. I might give my transport another big makeover and see if that works - i'm having the same trouble with the Commerce and industry also, so I don't know if its a mix thing. I might build a subway in the first city mentioned, the second city has me beat though as all the criteria seem to be met. thanks for your help, much appreciated!

[SC4BOY 20]

you can test it without a "big makeover".. just load the city.. slam down some transport between work and the undeveloped lots and if the develop you know that's the problem.. if you don't save it, you've not lost anything THEN you can make it over..

[Andeyhollawho 0]

This might sound silly but are you sure you have everything watered and powered?  Could be some pipes busted?

Besides that I would plop a building that fits your highest demand ($, $$, $$$) to satisfy that demand and then the residential will sprout.  MIght be enough of a kick to sponsor a mass migration to your city.  

[toroca 160]

You say you have parks and such in the non-developing areas. My question is this: did you place any of them after you zoned the area, or were they all in place first? A trick I've used hundreds of times in my cities to "force" growth in undeveloping areas or newly rezoned areas that aren't changing is to plop a handfull of small parks randomly throughout the area. The temporary spike in Mayor Rating seems to trigger instant (and sometimes explosive) growth in these areas. A notable incident for me happened in West Honolulu, part of my primary region and next door to my downtown core. My office core had become very dense and I wanted to expand it, so I wanted to shift the population next door so I could replace some residential buildings downtown with commerce. To do this, I first rezoned large sections of West Honolulu to medium density and some high density. After waiting for literally years of game time and seeing no change, I plopped about a dozen parks throughout the rezoned areas. Within a year, the population in West Honolulu had jumped by more than 100,000; and in a city tile that was at the time only about 250,000 people, that's a lot. I almost screwed it up, in fact, by growing too much, too fast.

Now, if this doesn't help, the next thing to look at is service coverage. Look at the developed areas of your city, and then look at the undeveloped ones. What is present in the developed parts but not the undeveloped? I have found that in some cases sims will not occupy newly zoned areas unles they have all the same services that can be found elsewhere in the city (police, fire, education, health care, etc). Desirability may look high, but the lack of one thing can prevent them from moving in, without them bothering to tell you why.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

It sure sounds like a game bug to me. I'm not exactly a veteran but maybe you simply aren't waiting long enough. There have been plenty of times where development won't happen, so I just put it on really, really fast speed and wait it out. If by 10 years of game time there still hasn't been ANYTHING, that HAS to be a problem (even on super speed this is like half an hour in real life). Make sure your transit networks are not congested, and that you have enough jobs. If all of the available jobs in your city are taken, nobody will move in because they can't get a job. Zone more C and I (in strategic places).

[SC4BOY 20]

Originally posted by: Indiana Joe

It sure sounds like a game bug to me..quote>

Why do you suppose others don't have it? I've never had the problem that can't be solved by various of the above suggestions wrt growth

[toroca 160]

I don't believe it's a bug. I think it's simply a quirk in the demand or growth simulator. All other things being equal, the simulator sees no reason to stir things up by firing up new development in established neighborhoods - until something changes. That's where the park-plop trick comes in. That triggers a temporary major spike in mayor rating and other factors, enough to spark off a new wave of growth. By the time the temporary effect fades, the whole neighborhood is redeveloping already. I've seen it dozens and dozens of time; no change despite a zone upgrade; plop a few parks and kaboom, buildings going up everywhere.

[alexr15 2]

Seeding forests (either in Mayor or God mode) can also help stimulate new development.

[zahrul3 471]

I agree with Alexr15. Once I had a city with your same problem(lots of undeveloped zones etc.) Then, I was just playing around and decided to plant trees(god mode) in those areas. The specified area started booming then, until there was no available desirable open space! Also, landmarks and rewards that you get(or cheat) like University, State Fair, Farmer's Market and Airports. try the SWAP(it has a capacity and jobs)airport with RMIP-2 airport lots in your neighbouring city. Then, plop the Airport tram so your sims could use an airport at the neighbouring city.

[MattShizzle 11]

I've noticed sometimes for some reason the city just won't grow - sometimes there's demand and sometimes there's even negative demand in every area. Usually doing what has been mentioned works - and sometimes even it fixes on it's own.

[Vigilante1987 180]

The above suggestions such as placing parks and forests are solid. Getting to 60,000 sims is sometimes tricky as this is the point where your city will naturally start changing from an Industry based economy to Commercial. Waiting ten years (game time, of course) is also a good idea, as the game will occasionally simulate recessions. I think you also mentioned building subways: you'll definitely need them if you want to grow a large city.

[Jimmyneutron 0]

Hi Folks, thanks for all the tips. I have had some slow growth in the city, ( I originally dropped down to about 58000 now I am up to 62000) having zoned in a couple of small rail lines to some of the parts yet to develop. I have had this problem for around 15 years of game time - the city is about 30 years old and has been stagnant for the last 15 of these. I am considering growing the commercial centre of the city now as I am having some trouble with industry demand having dropped a bit (this was originally the weakest) I havnt come across a difficulty like this playing before but it may just be beginning to sort itself out, albeit very, very slowly.

How do you get god mode tree placement in mayor mode?

[kimiraikko 0]

Hold the Ctrl+Alt+Shift buttons and click the God mode do that you can place the trees then.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

That's the cheapo way to do it. : )

About the park thing, I've had cases myself where I've had positive residential demand, good desirability in the area, the zoned area is civic-covered, low traffic noise, and short commute, and even AFTER placing a whole block full of parks STILL nothing happens. I've just given up on cities for this reason. What could cause that?

[yano_jl 0]

For what its worth, I was thinking about connections. Make sure roads, aves and highways reach the borders and you have accepted connections. I seem to get a spike in growth when I do this.

Seems I am a little late on this thread however. Pretty sure the OP would have resolved this issue by now.

[erbush 8]

Make sure their education level is up...

[Strategist01 0]

Also, you may even zone an area in pause, with parks, bus stops, civics, road etc. All that they need is there, and you have demand. However, it still might stagnate, or grow very slowly. The solution to this is of course to place a park, while the game is running and this will usually solve it. This is a solution if you ever find yourself wondering why they won't grow even if you gave them everything. I think it has something to do with the fact that the simulator doesn't "see" what you have done, and so doesn't take into account what happened, until you do something near there while it is running.