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Dnate,
We can finance sim acquisition with loans because we then resell the land to citizens. The proposal here is to keep one void sim as public land (i.e. not resell it). That will cost $400 US. Now that we've paid off the loans for CN we have about $1200 cash on hand . Per the reserve act, we are supposed to keep two months tier "in the bank" ($780) 1200-780=420 (all figures are estimated), so buying the void would consume all of our "discretionary" cash on hand.
[quote="Claude Desmoulins":2t22chqo]Dnate,
We can finance sim acquisition with loans because we then resell the land to citizens. The proposal here is to keep one void sim as public land (i.e. not resell it). That will cost $400 US. Now that we've paid off the loans for CN we have about $1200 cash on hand . Per the reserve act, we are supposed to keep two months tier "in the bank" ($780) 1200-780=420 (all figures are estimated), so buying the void would consume all of our "discretionary" cash on hand.[/quote:2t22chqo]
I think I see what you mean, even if it would just cost the city $75 a month is what it would actually have to paid in upkeep.
[quote="Dnate Mars":80fjgxix]Is there anything that requires a sim to have a single theme? Could say half of it be german and the other half be roman?[/quote:80fjgxix]Yes it could be 50% 50%, afaik. The regional plan doesn't require the sim in between to be anything (= not part of the urban expansion of NFS or CN).
An idea to keep in mind. We coud conect the two sims with a strip of four wilderness sims that woud have a ski run, a tramline or lift (using a cut long thin monster prims or extremly slow particle strem for line) and a road runing the length of all four sims with rezing areas, ski, snowboard, snowmobile and motorcycle rental and/or perchasing shops at each end. Their woud be only 1 or 2 rental lodges on each sim. The covenants woud have to specify no white list, and a mandatory autoreturn of between 30 minuets and 4 hours (to clean up crashed vheicles). The financing on this one woud be tricky perferibly the lodges woud be presold before the sims are ordered 
.
The reason i havent made this a serious perposal is because i havent found a decent pair of skies avalible in SL, i did stumble over a shop that alegdly sold snowboards but it wasen't delivered when i perchased it and an IM to the creator wasen't ansered 
Sorry everyone for only posting now, but I have been terribly busy.
On Regional Master plan:
Issues this plan address:
- The conflict between NFS height standard (fog height) and a more operative water height standard at 20 m.
- The existence of two urban cores and their expansion.
- Assuring that proeminent roads are kept and linked in a way that makes sense and do not hinder future expansion (remember that we don't have an Eminent Domain Act, therefore we must plan ahead).
- Defining a minimal coherent territory for the CDS.
The master plan as it is is a MINIMAL solution for these problems - and it is not the only one solution.
By minimal, I mean that it can be adapted to optimal solutions. Of course the slope between NFS and CN can be smoothed down in two sims instead of one. You can even set 3, 4, 5, N... sims in between... nevertheless, the one sim is the minimum.
The Master Plan has to be a minimal solution too because otherwise it would be too restrictive - and that is not the goal of it. It just says things like: 'When this sim is built, it must expand the Cardo' and 'When this sim is built, its northern corner must fall inside the 30 m isometer line' and 'this sim must continue the NFS city'. But it doesn't say how the Cardo is expanded, or what are the heights other than at the corners and medians, or how the expansion of NFS is done - unlike RL territorial plans, this one gives a lot of freedom, mirrorring the basic SL facts that i can push terrain as i like, can get a sim in between, can easily build and rebuild content.
This to say, Dnate - the masterplan can be reviewed. BUT it must be reviewed as a whole. This means that people considering sim proposals that do not agree with masterplan [u:309o015x]should[/u:309o015x] present a review of it, to go with the proposal and be also approved by the RA.
TOP: about switching CN and NFS as regards the North-South World Axis - the same applies. A review must be made to the masterplan as a whole too.
If we do not incorporate reviews in the masterplan consistently, we risk increasing the number of issues to be abridged by a future masterplan - making that future masterplan much more restrictive than the one that is in place.
On void sims:
From what i have been reading in this thread, i think there is some interest on stating the facts:
.Void sims can only be bought in packs of 4, by the total price of one normal sim. Thus, a void sim costs 25% of a normal sim.
.Void sims only hold around 1800 prims each, which is 12% of those held by a normal sim
.Also, and very important, void sims also have less performance as regards script iterations, polygon rendering and physical engine. This means that they are laggier.
As you can see by a simple reckoning, by the price of a normal sim we get indeed 4 times the area - but only 48% of the prims.
Primmage being essential to the population expansion - people like to have some furniture in their houses after all - we can therefore infer that a pack of voids will only hold less than half of the population of a normal sim (considering the same prim needs per person).
So, and as a simple rule of thumb: void sims enhance the territorial expansion, normal sims enhance the populational expansion.
Sim proposals should be defended, i think, on these principles as well. Why is it more important for the planners atm to propose either the territorial or the populational expansion?
Mind also that a void sims proposal can always be challenged on the cost principle (same cost, but only 48% of new residents to pay that cost, meaning that the remaining 52% cost must fall on someone or something), so i would advise everyone contemplating voids to prepare a careful financial argumentation
Some engineering can be done, i think, to lessen the cost, such as special convenants that allow that a void be rented to just one resident for a special fee, moving public structures in normal sims to voids so as to free space in normal sims that can be rented out, special business models such as sailing sims, etc. But we'd need to know what this engineering would be - namely, to assure that we keep a financial momentum that allows further expansion.
Samantha, I found a shop that sells skis, skates and snowboards. It is next to the Peach Tree Resort Lodge, at this SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/PeachTree%20Resort/59/68/29
If you go down the steps it is the first building on the left.
I have not tried to buy anything from this shop though. Hopefully it is not one you have already tried. 
Ms. Adamant, thank you for the information.
[quote="Dnate Mars":3rr160x3]Which way does the CN river flow?[/quote:3rr160x3]Hahah, funny question with a funny answer: It flows from bank (city side) to bank (NFS side)! But it really doesn't matter because that's barely visible when water is shallow. Near the Craedo auditorium it flows away from it, towards NFS. In other words it flows north --> south.