zoning laws

[borderfloss]

Grand opening, today only, everything half off, head around to the bar later, tip your waiter, we're in it for the money!

Ever since that day the coins rained down from the sky and real currency came to the City, new businesses have been popping up like mushrooms. We've all got bills to pay, right?


New Construction
New construction in the City requires deity--it's their city, really--and/or mod approval. New locations are generally welcomed, provided they follow the basic zoning laws:

✗ Please contact a mod before beginning construction on any large in-game building. Massive structures cannot appear out of nowhere: the City's very nature prevents it.
✗ Players are allowed to "find" a space for a business, workshop, or to live in the City--but, again, contact a mod before settling in if you feel it is large or noticeable. The size requirements (see below) apply whether a building is new or found.
✗ Regarding residences, please see City Residency for more information. Constructing new residences is permitted, but please speak to a moderator before beginning anything on a larger scale than a single family (five family members) dwelling. Construction rules apply to all types of construction.

The moderators reserve the right to ask a player to edit their planned construction/destination for the sake of gameplay and fairness. They also reserve the right to refuse a destination because of gameplay concerns.


Property Lines
✗ A new business or store can be, at most, roughly the size of a small/medium-sized privately-owned streetfront or shopping mall shop.
✗ A new restaurant, bar, or club can be, at most, the size of an average neighborhood bar, restaurant, or club.
✗ A new office or firm can be, at most, the size of a typical moderate-sized privately-owned business. No large office parks please.


Paperwork and Details
✗ Players are allowed a maximum of 20 NPCs (non-player characters) as employees. They must be gained slowly, not overnight. We also highly encourage players to have their characters hire other players' characters rather than fall back on NPCs. Everyone needs a job, right?
✗ We also encourage players to use the planning, building/finding, hiring, and opening processes as RP opportunities. In real life, new shops don't generally open the day after someone decides to start a business: it's a long, strange process. Otherwise, come up with a plausible storyline for setting up your business even if you don't play it all out.
✗ As your character's business progresses, he or she earns a little money, hires a few more people, and establishes things, renovations are allowed, but, like the original building, if they are on a larger scale then they require mod approval.


Remember, the deities will be quick to levy a fee for breaking a zoning ordinance.


Hostile Takeovers (Or Not)
Places like the Hospital, Cafe Juliet, Cybernetics, and other established City "set pieces" cannot be owned by player characters. Their current (NPC? Deity?) owners don't like the idea of hostile takeovers at all. Characters may work and sometimes even live in these places, but the location itself will remain generally open and public for other characters to use at their leisure.

Player characters can take over old player businesses if the previous player character has been dropped from the game or publicly abandoned the business in-game. When possible, check with that previous player before taking over the business--one never knows when a going-out-of-business sale will turn things around, or what plots are in the works. Takeovers work best if one is an employee who doesn't want to be out of a job now that the boss has gone back home (lucky stiff). To get a plum job like that, contact the current owner of a player-run business and ask about their character hiring your character. Communication is the key.


And with that, we're in business.


If you have any questions about places you are unsure about submitting, places to adopt, or anything else related to destinations in the City please don't hesitate to ask in this entry!

Comments

[trapdoor-spider.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about letting Myrnin live in the Underworld? He doesn't want anything special, mostly a large abandoned warehouse he can set up his lab in. It would just need electricity and basics but can be falling apart for all he cares as long as it's protected from the elements.

[borderfloss]

Living in the underground is perfectly acceptable under those conditions. Because it's a large warehouse, falling apart and faulty wiring are expected and repairable with time and effort!

[trapdoor-spider.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[jiyuna_togabito]

Hey there! I think my question has been answered by reading this but I did want to make sure everything was all right with you guys.

Aion and possibly several other members would like to open a private business in the underground, much like the size you've laid out above. Nothing big is needed since it'll be a place for producing illegal substances such as opium, etc (which is another thing I wanted to make sure if such activities are allowed).

Please let me know! Thank you very much!

[borderfloss]

Sorry this is coming so late! For some reason I thought this was handled in another mod venue, but yes if you are still interested in this location it would be allowed.

[jiyuna_togabito]

No problem at all! And yes, I'm still interested in this! Thank you so much for getting back to me and I really appreciate this~<3

[borderfloss]

Thank you for being patient! Just comment to the Underground section whenever you're ready ^ ^

[deformiwhats.livejournal.com]

I have a question about the possibility of Lorne opening a sort of sanctuary within the inner limits of the City to shelter people from nasties and those who might be suffering from curses so they don't get hurt by or hurt loved ones.

Lorne will live there, and I'm hoping to allow others to live there as well (the Buffyverse casts, and other characters who'd seek out protection). The Angel and Buffy casts are looking to help keep the peace with fists and magic and brains -- but I'm not sure how big/far we can go. We'd be happy with a sort of small inn with like 10 or so rooms but We'd be absolutely elated if we could eventually expand to 20-30 rooms if necessary.

I'm not looking to actually do any of this until I canonbump him but it'd be easiest if he could find rather than build a place, if possible.

[berryfloss.livejournal.com]

Hey there! Your character is free to build/buy/rent/construct a sanctuary of that sort within the City limits, provided that it is played out appropriately, (taking the time to get the resources, not just assembling everything in a week, expansions taking time, etc.). However, keep in mind that if he wards the sanctuary in the manner of his canon, it would still not prevent curses, or prevent people from inside being able to be cursed. It could prevent people from normally doing violence, or prevent people cursed to want to do violence from being able to go through with the full action, but it wouldn't be able to protect people from actually being cursed.

If you have any more questions, let us know!

[deformiwhats.livejournal.com]

That is fantastic! No more questions, thanks so much.

[berryfloss.livejournal.com]

As a last bit of note, we just ask that whenever curses might be affected by possible wards that you check with the moderators as to how they may possibly change or be able to be kept in check, if they're able. Thanks!

[deformiwhats.livejournal.com]

Will do, no problemo! \o/

[idmakeitaweek.livejournal.com]

I'm curious if Tony could build a Stark Industries here. I know City Solutions was the old Tony Stark's but I'm not sure what the ownership rules on things like that are. I'd start it small, just a warehouse overground and expand slowly.

[borderfloss]

Because the former Tony Player is still in the game you may want to ask him if it would be all right to adopt City Solutions. In the case that adopting City Solutions is not possible, Tony could build a Stark Industries on his own but it should take some time to develop. How long expansion takes really depends on activity, how many PCs you can get involved or if you want NPCs involved, etc. We are open to discussion on that front.

[cuffyoutwice.livejournal.com]

Might I ask about a new prison for the police? The size would hopefully be about the same as the old one, and I'm assuming location should be on the outskirts of the City. Will we have to build from scratch, or is there possibility of finding something they're able to refit to suit for a prison?

[borderfloss]

In the entry we made about the end of Prison Island we did encourage players to have their characters work on building a new prison if they wanted to. That prison would be run purely by citizens with no Deity involvement as they built the last prison and felt it was a Bad Experiment. So citizens may build a new prison but as you said it must be done from scratch or they may remodel an abandoned warehouse, abandoned slaughterhouse, etc.

Regarding the size of the prison though, the old Deity-monitored prison was large and Alcatraz in nature. A Citizen-run prison would have to start much smaller, being more like a jailhouse than a prison, but if players and characters run it for a while it definitely can grow in size as time goes by.

And yes! Location should be on the outskirts of the City.

[vikingvampire.livejournal.com]

Okay, obviously Eric just got to the City yesterday, but I'd like a Fangtasia for Eric to run.

Is there an empty building he can acquire or one that the owner wants to give up? Or would he have to build? Since running the club is sort of his job on TB (other than being Sheriff), I'd like him to continue doing it instead of skulking around the Underground at night.

[borderfloss]

Terrible apologies for coming to this question late, had to do some research on the last Eric we had! So we had an Eric in the game before who was also running a Fangtasia. Because the character and player are no longer in the game, you are free to find an empty location which your Eric can renovate and turn into a new Fangtasia. It may be the old Fangtasia location which was in the Underground and has been abandoned for at least half a year or you may start fresh with a completely new location. Using the old location would help Eric get the club up and running faster in terms of construction than using a new location, but this decision is up to you. You are by no means obligated to follow any foundations the last Eric put into place if you do decide to use the old Fangtasia.

[ditchabledate.livejournal.com]

Hey there! I was curious as to how plausible it would be to let Bobby open a salvage yard in the city. All he would really need is some land. He would build a decent house on it and the rest of the land would be used to collect things. I would have him go out and scavenge for parts and equipment to build things.

Does this sound possible?

[borderfloss]

This would be fine with us as long as the piece of land is of modest size to begin with. A yard within the urban center of the City would be allowed but it would have to be smaller or not grow in size compared to a yard on the outskirts of the City. In either case Bobby wouldn't have to apply or do anything with the Deities ICly for this kind of thing. You're free to have him stake out a piece on his own. Hope that helps!

[leviathanclaw.livejournal.com]

I apologize if this isn't the right place to post this, but is there anyone currently managing the Orphanage? If so, who would that person or persons be?

[untilitkillsyou]

I was looking into maybe Jason opening his restaurant which he also lived in canonly. It's not a big place at all, it looks like this and this. The actual restaurant is in a taller building but this one can be a simple stand alone place.