Zoning for Industrial

[starrdarcy 4]

Zoning for Industrial

By starrdarcy

8O Zone parcels for industrial??!!

Yes, it can be done – zoning for industrial. And it is actually very beneficial for you city and also adds some more realism to your industrial lands.

I’m surprised more people don’t know how to zone proper industrial parcels. The default way of putting down industrials isn’t very realistic because you don’t often see the actual lots as well the development is often very clattered and unorganized. With parcel zoning for industrial you have control of how the development will build.

The process is very simple: just hold down the CTRL and drag industrial near a road as if you were zoning for residential and commercial. You can also use the ALT key to alternate parcel direction when facing more than one road. I supplied a few pictures to demonstrate my point.

Step One: Find some land

You need land in order to lay out some industrial parcels. I suggest finding zoning and medium or large area, however you can zone small areas for community industrial and to raise local residential demand. In the following picture I kicked out some farmers for the new high-tech industrial park.

Step Two: Roads and Scenery

You obviously need roads to get the lots working, so start putting down some roads to service the lots.

Roads and streets: You may lay out the lots in whatever pattern you like, keep in mind that it is usually not a good idea to make to many diagonal roads because the lots will look strange when they develop. I suggest lay out a simple design when building roads.

Scenery and trees:In order to make a nice looking industrial area, why not add some scenery like trees and parks? Add some trees around the area for border or a noise barrier. Parks and pads can be used when your interested in create a high-tech village. You can even use a golf-course for the workers to tee of at lunch time!

Step Three: Start Zoning!

Ok, the most important step is to actually lay down the zones. Be sure not to make the parcels too big! Because the lots won’t develop or will take a very long time to build. I usually zone 2X2, 2X3, 3X3, 3X4 and similar.

Ok. Select either medium or heavy industrial and zoom down to your new industrial area. Then hold down the CTRL, click and drag the industrial near the road. You will not actually see the parcel arrows (like for res and comm.), so just remember the concept that all zones will point to the nearest road. One you release, the new industrial parcel will appear. If you zone near two roads, you can alternate the parcel arrows by holding the ALT key. This is the result:

Watch and Develop

As soon as you complete the industrial area, make any last minute changes and make sure you have your lots ready. You will now start the forward button to start the simulation. The first thing you notice when you turn on the power is that the lots develop into tidy lots and look very similar to real life industrial areas. And because the parcels have been pre-defined, the game will not cut up, and randomize the development layout. Sometimes, the game will take over nearby lots to create a larger building, don’t worry about this – it's a good sign when that starts to occur.

The first development!

Later on in the simulation…

You can now start to zone more industrial nearby for a larger area or you can start a whole new area. I chose to add to my small industrial area, I annexed some nearby farms and laid down some more parcels. I kept with the scenery theme – high-tech suburban industrial park.

More industrial for businesses your Sims will never know about.

No doubt it developed. In SimNation S, development tends to happen very fast with very high demands. The new parcels were snapped up and built into more soon-to-be-broke dot-com companies and AMD chip manufacturing plants.

A few suggestions to keep in mind

Be sure that your zones are not to big! This is a must if your lots to develop. Some larger zones will eventually develop however it will take a while before the demand is strong enough to justify the building of the lot. The common parcel sizes are displayed In the next two pictures.

For large area, the most common parcel sizes.

For smaller parcels.

Another suggestion is to create several medium sized industrial areas so that Sims don’t have to commute far and to spread out the pollution when dealing with dirty industrial. The parcel method for zoning is best for manufacturing and high-tech, dirty is just a waste of space often. And remember, adding scenery is also a good touch to the work place, so add trees, parks, pads and alike.

If you want a short animation on the process, you can find the download HERE. This file is around 8mb’s.

So that’s it on zoning for industrial. I’m sure the veterans on SCC already know how to do this already, and they can probably relate to what I’m talking about. The last pic is what happened later on in the game.

Comments welcome.

Cheers,

-starrdarcy

FYI: the farmers did get a lot of money for those lots!

[MathNerd05 0]

Makes me feel stupid to learn something I should have known. Thank you for the tip.

[louisville327 0]

This is an excellent guide for those among us who never realized how to do this.

I would add one suggestion for realism: PARKING LOTS!

Nothing makes a zoned lot look more realistic than ample parking, and should always be included---especially around commercial and industrial lots. Cars take up a lot of space in real life, and should therefore take up a lot of space in everyone's SC4 cities (if realism is their goal).


Again, good work with this!

[Rabid Tangerine 0]

Hmm. For some reason it strikes me as funny to read you of all people saying that...Unless I missed the point of your discourses somewhere along the way

I just wish Sim City would do a better job of aligning lots (especially commercial and ind, res is good at it) so there was actually a tangible way to access the parking lots.... It's distressting to me when a nice building grows, but the drive doesn't face the road, but instead dead-ends into your nice new park, with the small park on the lot facing the road... or having parking lots crammed behind the buildings and no way to get back there...

Eh I just kind of let my imagination take charge and believe that the little spaces between buildings are like alleyways or access drives or something...

 

But yeah starrdarcy this is a very excellent guide. It's something so simple that I never even thought of, but it truly does make a world of difference in the way industrial lays out (I tried it out last night). It is rather time-consuming, but this game is very good at doing that anyways...It's almost OCD like level of compulsion dropping one tile of road at a time to flatten an area perfectly...

[woodlm 3]

That's really neat! I never realized that. My Industrial zones ARE very cluttered with small little HT and ID stuff. From now on though...

[railrod7 2]

Oooohh   That was pretty.   Thank you for some good ideas for suburban industrial parks.  That gif was nicely done too!!!!  

railrod7

[Superchan 23]

those zones looks cool.

[Rabid Tangerine 0]

...

I can't help it. It works well with any industry...

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Truly an amazing tip. I still can't believe I never thought of it before

Very nice indeed. Thanks starrdarcy for bringing that up!

 

[TheCrybKeeper 289]

Okay, I'll admit it. Same here; I never thought of controling my Ind zones this way.

I feel slightly ignorant, at the moment,.....

 

Okay, now I feel better.

[NicolaiS 8]

A big thanks for a very very useful tip ... as others have mentioned before, I hadn't realised its indeed possible ...

[toxicpiano 125]

this is great! industrial zones in sc4 develop like zones in sc3k, all the buildings are mixed together in a soup, your solution is excellent!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Interesting experiment! Thanks for sharing the results with us and taking the time to post all these wonderful pictures.

Now there's one thing that makes me wonder: In the reader, industrial buildings are marked either as 'anchor', 'mech' or 'out'. I guess that anchor buildings behave like central structures, and the other two categories group around these anchors and/or serve as fillers. (remember that some industrial buildings don't require road access; they are 'connected' as long as there are industrial structures of the same industry type between them and the next road.) Now I'm wondering if you restrict the choice for industrial zones to anchor buildings if you zone this way...

Has anybody tried zoning e.g. a 3x2 zone in the predefined way shown here and adding a conventionally zoned 3x2 area right behind it, away from the road?

[soldyne 111]

I recently tried this and the results were fantasitc! heres a small pic, I may have more later:

 

 

everything is nice, neat and orderly.  before I parcelized I had a bunch of little 1x1 buildings poping up everywhere.  it looked really chaotic and ugly.

 

thanks for the great tip.  if it was not for this thread I may never have found this out! 

[DCFusion 0]

Thanks for the tip. It's amazing, you play a game for so long and them up pops a simple, but beneficial idea... Guess I'll be reworking some industrial zones tonight after work.

[+Guest]

Wow.Thanx for the tip I can't wait to give it a shot.

[Goldfish4209 9]

Wow. I can't believe that I never eralized this. Nice!

[starrdarcy 4]

Date: 11/23/2005 10:32:36 AM
Author: DCFusion
Thanks for the tip. It's amazing, you play a game for so long and them up pops a simple, but beneficial idea... Guess I'll be reworking some industrial zones tonight after work.

quote>

Actually, there is several little secrets deep within simcity 4. You have to find them... like 1x1 dense, row housing.

[bokrif 18]

This is just amazing!
Now I wonder why did the maxis-guys forget to print these too in the guide.
One of the most helpful topic I've ever seen. Congratulations!

[Fischbob 9]

Thanks for the tip! I knew that industrial lots parcelized themsemves after they develop, but didn't really think to actually try making the parcels initially. Well, you learn something new every day.

[starrdarcy 4]

Perhaps i'll contribute this to the Omnibus, perhaps not i dunno...

Anyways, i'm going to work on a new article called Advanced Industrial Layout and Designs This will focus on how to make your indy areas truly alive and realistic.

[Rabid Tangerine 0]

Sounds like an intriguing idea, I'd be down to see it. Industrial areas are by far, IMO the hardest to get looking right. Any tips in that general direction would be greatly appreciated

[starrdarcy 4]

Preview of my upcoming article!

[Nik-nik 3]

Starrdarcy it's been said before but you're a genius.

I have seen this 'tool' before, but untill now I have never given any thought about it.

It is true that my industrial areas look kind of chaotic with inaccessible builings in the back (that go abandoned sooner or later).

 

One thing that you have to keep in mind is that some of the downloads from STEX have different configurations susch as 6x6 (Simgoobers Goobergen labs) for instance or 4x4 (Gascookers Noxious Nylon Plant). Now with your hint it would be much more easier to have these grown, the only thing you have to keep in mind is that you need to know the size of footprint of the bbuiling you want to ahve developped.

 

Nik-Nik

[soldyne 111]

Date: 11/24/2005 6:01:44 PM Author: starrdarcy

Date: 11/23/2005 10:32:36 AM Author: DCFusion Thanks for the tip. It's amazing, you play a game for so long and them up pops a simple, but beneficial idea... Guess I'll be reworking some industrial zones tonight after work.

quote> Actually, there is several little secrets deep within simcity 4. You have to find them... like 1x1 dense, row housing.

quote>

 

I would like to see a screen shot of what you mean by 1x1 dense row housing.  I assume you mean 1 tile of high density residential.  low density houses can still build on high density which is well known.  do you mean that there are hidden maxis buildings which build only on 1x1 dense zoning?

[vab423 8]

I vote for an Omnibus article.  These kinds of how-tos are so great and helpful but it's painful searching the forums and scrolling through all the replies.

[railrod7 2]

In the Preview of my upcoming article photo, which parking lots are you using????  They're not in game correct....

railrod7

[soldyne 111]

Date: 12/6/2005 10:55:18 PM Author: vab423 I vote for an Omnibus article.  These kinds of how-tos are so great and helpful but it's painful searching the forums and scrolling through all the replies.

quote>

 

I second the vote!  if that matters.  this is a great article which has helped my cities industrial areas.  thanks starrdarcy!

[XpirAment 0]

I tried this and I can't get the directional arrows in my industrial zones. Am I not doing it right, or do I need to download some mod or something?

I don't get the arrows when I hold CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, or any combination of these keys. Any suggestions?

[Compromise 1]

Date: 12/7/2005 10:09:29 PM Author: soldyne

Date: 12/6/2005 10:55:18 PM Author: vab423 I vote for an Omnibus article.  These kinds of how-tos are so great and helpful but it's painful searching the forums and scrolling through all the replies.

quote>

I second the vote!  if that matters.  this is a great article which has helped my cities industrial areas.  thanks starrdarcy!

quote>

Good idea.

 

Contact SkiGeek and perhaps something can be aranged.

[joeynymets 19]

Date: 12/7/2005 10:20:10 PM Author: XpirAment I tried this and I can't get the directional arrows in my industrial zones.  Am I not doing it right, or do I need to download some mod or something? I don't get the arrows when I hold CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, or any combination of these keys.  Any suggestions?

quote>

 

yea same with me I dont know why. Does any know why this is happening??