Commercial zones not developing

[Zrinschchuck 2]

Hi everyone and sorry if I'm starting an already existing topic. I have a problem with developing commercial zones in my new city. I've put all possible commercial zones, all near residential zone, and only few of them have developed. I don't know what to do to get those buildings built and my population is starting to decrease because of this. Need help.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

Do you have commercial demand?  Have you placed cap-relieving things like parks, the town hall, the convention center, tourist trap, etc?  Are the zones in a desirable area (low pollution, high traffic)?

[Zrinschchuck 2]

Do you have commercial demand?  Have you placed cap-relieving things like parks, the town hall, the convention center, tourist trap, etc?  Are the zones in a desirable area (low pollution, high traffic)?

 There is at least minimal demand for every one of them, I have a lot of parks, I've planted palms(plenty), have put the Town Hall, the Casino and something else(I think that's all I could put) and the zones are in the greenest green area, although some zones are near the plant but are still shown as in high desirable area.

[Bdub01 201]

If you haven't already done so built a neighboring city and for starters put R and I only and see if that creates C demand in your other city.

[Zrinschchuck 2]

If you haven't already done so built a neighboring city and for starters put R and I only and see if that creates C demand in your other city.

I did it, and while the population in the new town remained unemployed despite the big industrial zone I created, nothing's changed. I think that barely 5 new businesses have opened and I've surrounded them with houses, schools, everything, and still nothing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

What kind of neighbour connections did you set up?  Surface rail will move passengers from a residential area in one city to the downtown of the next city over, probably faster than anything except monorail.  If you had to, you can find conversion stations that can terminate rail and have a large capacity subway hook up in the basement.  Sims have to change trains.

[Zrinschchuck 2]

What kind of neighbour connections did you set up?  Surface rail will move passengers from a residential area in one city to the downtown of the next city over, probably faster than anything except monorail.  If you had to, you can find conversion stations that can terminate rail and have a large capacity subway hook up in the basement.  Sims have to change trains.

I connected the two with two avenues, I never put rails into my city.

[Prophet42 1,503]

Make sure you have mass transit stops in your residential and you commercial areas.  Sometimes planting trees within the undeveloped zones will stimulate growth.

[Zrinschchuck 2]

Make sure you have mass transit stops in your residential and you commercial areas.  Sometimes planting trees within the undeveloped zones will stimulate growth.

I've planted lots of palm trees and I've also put several bus stations, but nobody uses them.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Bus stops get used if they are convenient.  Does everyone drive or walk?  How big a population are we discussing?

[Zrinschchuck 2]

Bus stops get used if they are convenient.  Does everyone drive or walk?  How big a population are we discussing?

I spend a huge amount of money on them if that's what you mean. Around 4 thousand.

[Bdub01 201]

As a last resort you could dezone all the C in the city to artificially bump up the demand. Then zone only what is needed...

[Ro-Bo 183]

How about education level? And did the area has water supply? Also try to run the city with cheetah speed for a while. See if there any development at all. Just don't save if anything goes wrong.

[Zrinschchuck 2]

How about education level? And did the area has water supply? Also try to run the city with cheetah speed for a while. See if there any development at all. Just don't save if anything goes wrong.

The place has an elementary and high school, but the thing that I did not do is supply the town with water, on purpose of course, because no building has had a no water sign above. I know it's stupid but nobody complained so I thought why bother with it.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

You don't need water until you want high wealth buildings.  They won't develop at all until you put water in, though.  You will also need water when if zone medium or high density.

 

I mean, just zone for what you have demand for.  Early on, cities usually don't have a whole ton of commercial demand--there's not a lot of business prospects in a small town.  Just keep zoning residential and industrial when you have demand for them, and commercial demand will go up over time.

[Zrinschchuck 2]

You don't need water until you want high wealth buildings.  They won't develop at all until you put water in, though.  You will also need water when if zone medium or high density.

 

I mean, just zone for what you have demand for.  Early on, cities usually don't have a whole ton of commercial demand--there's not a lot of business prospects in a small town.  Just keep zoning residential and industrial when you have demand for them, and commercial demand will go up over time.

I think that I've put mostly zone high or medium density, so I'll try to supply that part with water. Thanks ahead

 

EDIT: After I supplied the town with water, residential zones started developing and also some commercial. It's not much, but better than before. Thanks

[Ltw 401]

 

You don't need water until you want high wealth buildings.  They won't develop at all until you put water in, though.  You will also need water when if zone medium or high density.

 

I mean, just zone for what you have demand for.  Early on, cities usually don't have a whole ton of commercial demand--there's not a lot of business prospects in a small town.  Just keep zoning residential and industrial when you have demand for them, and commercial demand will go up over time.

I think that I've put mostly zone high or medium density, so I'll try to supply that part with water. Thanks ahead

 

 

Be careful with space. I zone a small space in the beginning. I start with mid density, this will develop to low density first but will grow further when your city is getting older. I usually focus on commercial offices since those could give a lot of employment. However, people still need stores, so commercial services are also important. I often choose for malls in the city center/high density neighborhoods (you can download custom malls at the STEX), and big low density zones at the borders of the city (if the demand is high enough). Because of the relatively large distance and the fact that those zones are of a low density those zones will have low income services. Also an important thing to remember is building slowly.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

I supply water before I make my first zone.  You get better buildings.  Try 10K to build, and 100 a month for most of your water needs.  I've never needed more than two of these.

 

Oh, and I am sure that I read somewhere that only single occupancy lots can get along without water.

[Zrinschchuck 2]

I supply water before I make my first zone.  You get better buildings.  Try 10K to build, and 100 a month for most of your water needs.  I've never needed more than two of these.

 

Oh, and I am sure that I read somewhere that only single occupancy lots can get along without water.

Whoah, that's really profitable. I wasn't keen on downloading stuff for the game, but it seems now that I'll be downloading a lot for it. Thanks again

[Bdub01 201]

I supply water before I make my first zone. You get better buildings. Try 10K to build, and 100 a month for most of your water needs. I've never needed more than two of these.

Oh, and I am sure that I read somewhere that only single occupancy lots can get along without water.

Whoah, that's really profitable. I wasn't keen on downloading stuff for the game, but it seems now that I'll be downloading a lot for it. Thanks again

Even though a town just starting doesn't need it I always supply water unless I'm making a small farming community. Then the water gets too polluted and I have to put in a purifier or two just for a few thousand sims so I usually don't give them water. But all my other cities I start off with water.

I didn't use custom stuff for a long time but now that I have downloaded tons of stuff it's like an all new game!

[Ltw 401]

 

 

I supply water before I make my first zone. You get better buildings. Try 10K to build, and 100 a month for most of your water needs. I've never needed more than two of these.

Oh, and I am sure that I read somewhere that only single occupancy lots can get along without water.

Whoah, that's really profitable. I wasn't keen on downloading stuff for the game, but it seems now that I'll be downloading a lot for it. Thanks again

Even though a town just starting doesn't need it I always supply water unless I'm making a small farming community. Then the water gets too polluted and I have to put in a purifier or two just for a few thousand sims so I usually don't give them water. But all my other cities I start off with water.

I didn't use custom stuff for a long time but now that I have downloaded tons of stuff it's like an all new game!

 

 

There are also water plants which have build in purifiers. I usually use those when I start a farming community. Separating water systems is also a good way to go, this way you separate the clean water for the village with the relatively dirty water of the farms, making it more controllable and reliable.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Well, if you really want to "cheat" you could add to my water plant.  I actually built them together, and the water plant fuels the power plant (Hydrogen fusion).  The power plant also consumes all pollution in a big tile except road pollution caused by traffic. 

 

If you want to play this tile very long, don't blow up this power plant.  The half-life of the radiation contamination (Carbon 14) is 5000 years.

[Ltw 401]

I like costs a million but it gives enough power for huge metropolitan cities, at the end it's cheaper than using coal or other conventional plants. And if you don't mind cheating, you could always use moolah.

 

Most of the times I use it is a water production and treatment plant and it is cheaper than producing this much water the conventional (Maxis) way.

[Nesral Sredna 62]

Well, if you really want to "cheat" you could add to my water plant.  I actually built them together, and the water plant fuels the power plant (Hydrogen fusion).  The power plant also consumes all pollution in a big tile except road pollution caused by traffic. 

 

If you want to play this tile very long, don't blow up this power plant.  The half-life of the radiation contamination (Carbon 14) is 5000 years.

I've begun to see why people fear the turtle mode...

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

I run turtle mode a lot of the time.  The thing at the beginning is to have adequate funding.  Hard mode doesn't give you enough money to do much very soon except be patient.  I use the moolah command to up the budget initially and when the city prospers enough, I take back the grant in aid.

[Bdub01 201]

I like It costs a million but it gives enough power for huge metropolitan cities, at the end it's cheaper than using coal or other conventional plants. And if you don't mind cheating, you could always use moolah.

I love that one. It is very pretty, and I always put a fire station right beside it and I've never had fire problems. It's just hard to get that first million to buy it!!!

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

moolah 1001000 will do that with 1000 to spare.

[mwindite 3]

Hi, I have a similar problem. I've played SimCity for years—I am not a novice—and I've never had this issue before.

My commercial demand is zero, and my commercial lots are not populating. The rest of the city works great, even with a population of 200K, but no commercial! Can you believe that?

I have a very active region with trains running between various cities. This all started after a recent issue that required me to redownload the game. I had a file in my Plugins folder that was causing the language to switch to Scandinavian instead of English. I isolated a few recently downloaded files, removed them, and that fixed the language issue.

However, I was still experiencing glitches, so I uninstalled and reinstalled the game. Everything seemed fine until I noticed my commercial zones wouldn’t build. I suspect the file that caused the language problem may have contained a virus. I removed several suspicious files, and once that worked, I deleted them to avoid contaminating the new install.

This issue is happening in all my new cities. I’ve tried several builds, and it’s always the same.

Help!!!

Cori Edit: I fixed up the cAPSLOCK mess and formatted the paragraphs.

  Edited August 10, 2025 by CorinaMarie  
Spruced up the post.

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

On 7/27/2025 at 7:03 AM, mwindite said:

Help!!!

Prior to this trouble, did you ever install any plugins or DLLs in the Install Folder's Plugins? If so, did you put them back in after reinstalling the game?

What you describe sounds a lot like having a Demand Enhancer type mod and now it's missing.

[mwindite 3]

yep you nailed it