So here's Oakbrook right now:



I labeled it the best I could. There's a big empty area. Any suggestions what I could put there?

Maybe like an old town area with old shops and tourist places? I'm imagining in that square area coming down from the mansions maybe a cute pavilion park with a gazebo and chess tables with a fishing pond. On that area near the ocean how about a board walk with really really old mansions.

ETA:

Your hood is gorgeous!! I don't suppose you'll be able to upload it because I'm guessing you used downloaded lots. So that's probably a no...lol

Looks like you still need a business/administrative district which would fit right in there.

I would swap the middle income for the lower income since living close to a beach is normally sort after land.

Unfortunately, I did use a lot of downloaded lots. But I can link you to the terrain I used for it:
http://modthesims.info/d/400734
And from there you can kinda-ish recreate it with your own lots if you're inclined.

Business/administrative district - how exactly would that work?

As for the lower-class being on the beach - they used to be summer cottages, but when the town begin expanding people moved into them full-time.

Sorry to kind of half de rail the thread, register...but can I ask where you get most of your lots? I'm in desperate need of them.

I don't remember all the specific lots I used, but I'll PM you a list of all the ones in my downloads folder - I save everything.

Praise!!

Business/admin would be some hood deco and some largish community lots - offices, banks, the public library, city hall, museums, police station, and all that good stuff. You could build retail spaces or restaurants with "offices" above them. Don't forget to build in some green space, little parks and squares where the office workers can eat their lunches on nice days and the city can sponsor fresh-air concerts in the summer. Think about the kinds of places your sims go to in rabbithole jobs, and build the ones you can think of ways to incorporate into played community lot visits.

Not sure if you want to restrict OFB lots to subhoods but I'd build a little area where sims could buy land/office space to start a business. By pre-designing a generic layout, for them, it'll be like your sims are renting or buying buildings to start their businesses, just like people do in real life. And you'd avoid a hodge-podge of buildings and have a business center with a unified theme.

Also, one of the best things I like about Belladonna Cove is the variety of community lots; yes most serve the same function but each has a different feel. You definitely have enough space to make multiple community lot centers, one for each section of the map. Your sims in the mansion probably wouldn't want to shop in the same part of town as those in low income housing after all. Same is true for apartments. You might want a higher end apartment complex some place for all those rich college grads or a cheap downtown place for all those lower income sims who were kicked out of their homes because their parents were tired of having so many mouths to feed.

For myself, it might be different way to build community lots but I definitely prefer small lots with only one or two functions rather than huge lots that do everything. It's probably a habit of mine leftover from my early simming days when I had a slower computer, but I make everything separate--dining, dive bar, bowling alley, clothing store, grocery store, town square, coffee shop, etc. Each one is its own new lot. Building/designing a hood in that way gives you plenty of lots to spread out in the hood so think about the type of things you'd like for your sims to do while in your town and go from there. Maybe there's a college campus section of your hood or maybe there's more forests and parks that your nature enthusiasts are trying to get the mayor to preserve...

What I've done. (Sorry ... I have to dash out the door again, so if this has been mentioned five times already, I apologize)

The not-lazy way to do this:

Main-hood hotels. Freezy the Housekeeper is a pain, but there are a couple of threads on hotels here, and they really helped me. Main thing to be aware of: routing. If there is even a burp in the routing, Freezy will find it.

Main-hood community college. Even if you don't have the Squinge/Chaavik mods (which apparently give my game ... and my game only ... severe indigestion and cause a major mess), you can use the vocational trainer or Sophie-David's lecterns.

Transportation hubs (bus stations, even if they technically aren't functional), police and/or fire stations, gas stations.

Semi-tourist area. Amusement park, campgrounds, etc.

The lazy way to do this: Hood Deco! Lots of it!

Gotta run.

This is beautiful! Lovely work, Bulbasaur!


I like the office/admin building suggestions - people need a place to work. Perhaps some higher-end community lots for the mansion owners to go? A "forest" that sims can visit, a industrial area, a historical district...

Thanks for all the compliments. I almost regret making this just for myself now. If I wasn't using so many downloaded lots I'd happily share it.

I've decided to turn the empty section into a sort of OFB empty-shop area and a few office buildings (haven't decided if functional or hood deco) yet. A small plaza, coffee-shop, maybe a cheap motel for dates. Add a few higher-income-but-probably-not-mansions down by that beach on the left side.
I'll take another look through MTS to see what I can find. To @MikeJMW55 If I find any lots I use I'll put the links here later.

Maybe higher income stuff and a "school"? Either for deco or using a mod if you're that adept at them. Business buildings seem good as well, just the layout of where the different 'income bracket' housing areas fall, and the park, make me think of it being a good location for a school

Mom 'n Pop shops maybe? Or a sort of indie newspaper/media building I think would fit with the overall sort of feel there over high-rise incredibly corporate business options (if you're still looking for input)

I have to give you massive props for making that such an intricate neighborhood, it looks amazing!