LOCUS AMOENUS

[FernLeissa]

I would like to ask that the following proposal for the rewriting of the covenant for Locus Amoenus be put to a motion at the next ra meeting:

LOCUS AMOENUS (Sim-wide covenant)
Locus Amoenus is modeled after an ancient roman harbour in central Italy with a large area of surrounding countryside. The time period is indeterminate. It is a double-prim sim, which means that a 512 m2 parcel has 234 prims allotted instead of the usual 117.

Locus Amoenus has zones which are used to define the expected appearance of builds and/or different administration of land. The Zones are: H (Harbour and beachfront) and C (Countryside). Plots are identified by a string P.X, corresponding to the number of the plot.
Terraforming is allowed within a distance of +2/-2 meters.
All the buildings exteriors must be built in pre-industrial materials, namely:
Structural elements can be stone, wood, terracotta, clay, brick or marble
Roofing elements are terracotta, slate and wood.
Exterior flooring elements can be terracotta, marble, stone, brick, mosaic tile or wood
Wall elements can be stone, clay, brick, terracotta, stucco or wood.
Door and window elements can be wood or metals. Large panes of glass must be partitioned by appropriate framing

Typologies
Zone H: (Harbour and beachfront). Commercial and residential. Buildings in this zone should resemble styles found in central Italy. Structures may be no taller than 20 meters.
Zone C: (Countryside). Residential only. Commercial activity is prohibited. Structures may be no taller than 20m. . Buildings in this zone should resemble styles found in central Italy. Buildings must preserve a distance not inferior to 2 meters to neighboring plots. There must be a minimum of 3 trees per 1024m2 of plot area.

______

Much of the wording for this I have taken from the NFS covenant, which seems to have been relatively successful in most of our views.

The actual parceling of LA into zones H and C could be left for the Guild to design with final approval by the RA.

Fern

[Rosie Gray]

I like it! And, given your experience with all of the covenant work you did last year Fern, I think you have a very good grounding in how to look at the concepts.

[Callipygian]

I would like to ask that the following proposal for the rewriting of the covenant for Locus Amoenus be put to a motion at the next ra meeting:

LOCUS AMOENUS (Sim-wide covenant)
Locus Amoenus is modeled after an ancient roman harbour in central Italy with a large area of surrounding countryside. The time period is indeterminate. ...

Fern

I just want to clarify here. Today the RA passed a motion asking the Guild to design a sim terraform, architectural library etc. based on a Tuscan atmosphere of indeterminate time period (since the RA tabled a motion on the timeframe to be represented). In addition, Delia and Tor, alone or as a committee, offered to work in tandem with the Guild so that design and suitable covenants could be created to work together.

My understanding of your request for motion is to revert that theme choice and base the sim design and architecture catalogue on the theme and covenants in your motion.

The two themes are not mutually exclusive, since a harbour with surrounding countryside could be Tuscan, but if the Guild invests time and effort during the next month in research and design of suitable buildings it should be clear what the potential changes to their work might require if your proposed motion passes.

A solution might be for the design of the terraform to be done based on your proposed motion since it is usable for the theme voted on today, and the issue of covenant/architectural theme be discussed here by any interested parties, so that any resulting amendment to your motion can be made before it goes to RA and there are no further delays in getting the redevelopment (in whatever form it takes) in motion.

Calli

[FernLeissa]

Yes. Definitely. I think we are all of a mind to move the terraforming and redesign of LA ahead as quickly as possible. I am not as clear in seeing that we have reached a compromise/consensus on the theme of this sim and the covenant.

Any discussion on this forum that might improve this version of a covenant for LA is welcome. In order to try and find the consensus point I wrote this up as a very general and very brief description. It may be that it would benefit from a little more specificity with regard to theme, zoning or even perhaps historical protection for some existing public structures.

I do not know how well I have captured the wishes of the current residents of LA. I would especially like to hear from them as they are the ones who have contributed tier (in some cases for many years) to help keep this sim going. And it is their home.

I encourage all interested parties in this redesign to speak with representatives of the RA. The RA has the final say on covenant – they will be the ones to vote this up or down in two weeks’ time - but they need to hear from the citizens they represent.

I also feel that we will save time and reduce the amount of later discussions over the sim terraform, architectural library etc. if the Guild is given a clearer picture of what it is the citizens of CDS would like to see developed in LA.

Fern

[Shep]

I daresay I am being naive .. or maybe just optimistic .. I thought we asked for a Tuscan theme ... the next step before any zoning is to see what design fits ... not tie the guild in knots saying no you can't put a tree there its not allowed ... we need LA to look wonderful .. our best looking sims seem to be able to find people who want to live there .. what we surely don't want is just tweaking .. what is the point of that .. time to grasp the nettle . imo Shep

[Rosie Gray]

I also feel that we will save time and reduce the amount of later discussions over the sim terraform, architectural library etc. if the Guild is given a clearer picture of what it is the citizens of CDS would like to see developed in LA.

Fern

This is exactly my hope too Fern. I don't want the guild to spend time working up a proposal that then is rejected because of some component that wasn't discussed beforehand. We need to know exactly what the parameters are to be.

[Rosie Gray]

I daresay I am being naive .. or maybe just optimistic .. I thought we asked for a Tuscan theme ... the next step before any zoning is to see what design fits ... not tie the guild in knots saying no you can't put a tree there its not allowed ... we need LA to look wonderful .. our best looking sims seem to be able to find people who want to live there .. what we surely don't want is just tweaking .. what is the point of that .. time to grasp the nettle . imo Shep

I think you're right about the zoning Shep, that the design potential is greater if we don't have the zoning written in stone yet (unless that is what the RA decrees), and definately it's not about where a tree can go or not. What we do need to know is the time periods, the general theme (Tuscan), and anything else in that vein. Then the guild can get down to work drawing up some proposals for terraform, building clusters etc. The actual zoning could be based on those building clusters.

[FernLeissa]

We have had a number of suggestions on what the theme/covenant for LA should be. As yet, nothing has been voted, been accepted by the ra as the new covenant and added to the "About Land" tab.

Covenant is intimately related by not identical to redesigning/re-terraforming the sim, the action that the new Guild has been asked to start.

Tuscany is in central Italy, so I have simply de-specified the theme a little more with this suggestion

I am not specifying how the zones will be laid out. I am using zone names as descriptors for the two types of land - urban/seaside and country – that a number of people have suggested would be nice to see on the sim, The Guild may move around country and urban land quite as they find most beneficial or most interesting for the new build. They can use the zone numbers to indicate which private plots are to be used for what purpose; urban or country.

Specifing these two zones now is meant to document that we are asking the Guild for both countryside and urban area. I agree that after the Guild has completed the re-design of LA that they may find that they want more zones with pehaps more specificity. I think this can be handled by a fairly simple amendment to the LA covenant.

Requiring x number of trees on private plots in rural areas of the CDS is quite typical of all our covenants; see AM for an example. This is not to suggest how many or where the trees should be place on public land around the sim and should have no bearing of the work the Guild is starting.

Fern

[Rosie Gray]

That makes sense Fern, and I did think that's what you were suggesting.

[Tor Karlsvalt]

I like this also. Looking forward to other ideas.