Comprehensive Plan for Rockdale

Introduction:

Rockdale is a city surrounded around a major river stream. One of the major goals of Rockdale is to become a city that thoroughly follows the principles of New Urbanism. Rockdale planners are striving for a walkable community, useful public space, and a resident-centered attitude.

This comprehensive plan features data that was taken on July 25^th, 2027.

Background:

Rockdale began in mid-2020 first started off as an oddly shaped sideways triangle. The reason why Rockdale first started off as a triangle to keep commercial and industrial buildings away from housing areas. It is important that citizens live away from industrial zones to reduce potential health hazards.

After creating districts, industrial buildings were limited to what type of goods they are able to produce. Rockdale limited businesses from producing the same type of product to diversify flows of income.

Population:

As of July 25^th, 2027, there are a total of 8,001 residents living in the Rockdale area.  The population is made up of 8% children, 16% teens, 20% young adults, 33% adults, and 23% seniors. There are 59 births per week and 16 deaths per week.

 

There is a 77% housing approval rate from residents. A 77% commercial building approval rate. The approval rate for office buildings is 91% and 94% approval rate for industrial buildings.

 

 

Built Environment:

Goal: To follows the New Urbanist principles by creating a city that Rockdale citizens are proud to live in.

Strength: Listening to resident’s complaints and fixing the problems that they are facing in the city

Weakness: Expansion projects require money and may make some citizens unhappy. Old road connections may impede new road connections as they are being built.

Threat: Some updates may displace citizens and force them to rebuild or move out.

Opportunity:  To create a city that is based on the New Urbanist principles. Rockdale wants to improve the lives of its residents in the best way possible.

Actions: Listen to complaints of citizens. Build the necessary services and collect funding for updates.

Housing:

Goal: Diversify different housing options for current and future residents.

Strength: Housing is already separated from local businesses and noise; this will increase housing happiness and decrease potential health hazards.

Weakness: Rockdale has a lot of single-family homes and not enough high-density buildings. This means that majority of the population is either children, older adults, and elderly.

Opportunity: Rockdale has the opportunity to increase the amount of high- density areas. This would bring in more young adults who are ready to live on their own.

Threat: With more housing areas, the demand for utilities and services will increase. Rockdale needs to make sure that there are enough utilities and services available for all residents.

Actions: Create more high-density residential zones and watch availability levels for utilities and services.

 

Economic Development:

Goal: To increase the amount of business’ located in Rockdale.

Strength: There is already a good amount of businesses to start off with.

Weakness: Increased amounts of industrial businesses will increase the amount of traffic congestion and pollution. The lack of tourists does not bring in an extra flow of income for the city.

Threat: Not enough residents to work at local businesses can force business owners to shut down and abandon buildings. Abandon buildings not only hurt the city’s image but income flow as well.

Actions:

Create attractions that will bring in tourists.

Create more housing areas that will bring in more citizens to work in local businesses.

Transportation:

Goal: To create an efficient mass public transportation system that will decrease the levels of traffic and offer an environmentally friendly atmosphere.

Strength: Rockdale is able to collect a small fee from public transportation as another flow of income.

Weakness: There is a possibility that local residents will prefer to use their personal vehicles instead of public transportation. Currently, there are some road connections that are backed up due to traffic flow. There may be a possibility that will increase traffic flow.

Threat: Not enough citizens using public transportation will cost the city more money in the long run, instead of improving city income levels.

Actions: Create public transportation and bus lines. Increase the size of the roads.

Parks and Recreation:

Goal: Have more parks and leisure activities for residents to enjoy.

Strength: Increasing the number of parks and leisure activities will increase resident happiness.

Weakness: While building parks is good for residents, that does not mean they are going to use them. Parks cost money for upkeep; money that could be used for something else.

Opportunity: There is an amazing opportunity here to create a city that is tailored to the needs, wants, and happiness of its citizens. Once these three categories are addressed, news may spread about how Rockdale is a wonderful place to live.

Threat: Building more parks and leisure activities cost money and space. It is possible that residential land will have to be used to build upon.

Actions: Balance the number of parks and leisure activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Services and Utilities: 

Rockdale offers an elementary, high school, and public library for residents. Currently there 24 residents using the public library. 52% of citizens have graduated from elementary school and 27% of residents have graduated from high school. 950 citizens have been buried in the cemetery and 7 citizens have been cremated.  Rockdale is proud to announce that there are no sick seniors. Rockdale is in the process of expanding the average life span from 78 years to 100 years.

Rockdale offers two medical clinics, one childcare center, an elder center, and a cemetery for residents. As of now, there are currently no sick citizens in one of the medical clinics.

Goal: The goal for utilities is to have enough services to supply the community, but also keep the cost and pollution down. The goal for the community services is to have enough opportunities for residents to learn and grow.

Strength: Community services bring in extra income for the city. For example, collecting a small fee for public transportation could offset the maintenance of roads.

Weakness: Not all of the services are going to be used by residents. In the long run, the money used on community service could have been used on something else.

Opportunity: To increase the lifespan and happiness of the residents.

Threat: Wasting money on something that was not needed.

Actions: Create more community services that could improve the lives of citizens. Continue to listen to complaints of citizens and make the needed changes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Environment:

Currently, Rockdale is harvesting trees and growing crops on farmland.

Goal: To use the natural resources located inside of the city to better serve the community.

Strength: Using the natural resources located in the city will create a sense of pride for the community. Residents should be proud that they are able to sustain themselves using the resources around them.

Weakness: Mining for certain resources can harm the environment.

Opportunity: To use what we have to our advantage.

Threat: Hurting the citizens and the environment.

Actions: Identify natural resources available. Set limits of what and how much can be pulled from the natural environment.

Future Land Use:

Goal: to have industrial buildings in one section of the city and have an office, commercial buildings, and housing in another section

Strength: By separating industrial from housing this will create multiple outcomes. The first outcome is that citizens are less likely to get sick from the pollution being produced. The second outcome is that it forces the citizen to travel from one side to another. Citizens can use the city’s public transportation or their own personal vehicles. The third outcome is that noise and pollution are kept to the one side of the city instead of throughout

Weakness: It is not always convenient to have residents drive long distances to get to work.

Opportunity: To buy more land and expand Rockdale’s property

Threat: There need to be enough residents to expand and sustain Rockdale after expanding the property lines.

Action: Increase the population size and Rockdale’s savings account. Buy land and upgrade it to better fit Rockdale’s residents.

Implementation Strategy:

• Built Environment: To follow the New Urbanist Principles with the hope of creating a city that Rockdale citizens are proud to call home.
• Housing: Diversify different housing options for current and future residents.
• Economic Development: To increase the amount of business’ located in Rockdale
• Transportation: To create an efficient mass public transportation system that will decrease the levels of traffic and offer an environmentally friendly atmosphere.
• Parks and Recreation: Have more parks and leisure activities for residents to enjoy.
• Future land use: to have industrial buildings in one section of the city and have an office and commercial, and housing in another section.
• Community Services and Utilities: The goal for utilities is to have enough services to supply the community, but also keep the cost and pollution down. The goal for the community services is to have enough opportunities for residents to learn and grow.
• National Environment: To use the natural resources located inside of the city to better serve the community

Step One: Update road connections and zoning areas to better fit the New Urbanist ideals.

Step Two: Create more housing areas with a mixture of high-density and low-density houses. Bring in more young adults to increase the population and decrease the average age of residents.

Step Three: Create more business opportunities for residents.

Step Four: Build more community services to improve the lives of citizens.

4.1 Build a university and promote the importance of attending school.

4.2 Build more attractions to bring in tourists

Step Five: Create public transportation and stress the importance of it.

Step Six and onwards: Continue to grow Rockdale City for residents. Assess the budget and see where money needs to be spent and decrease the budget in unused areas. Listen to the wants, needs, and complaints of citizens. Make Rockdale a happy place to be.

Simulation vs. Reality

Cities: Skylines did a great job of replicating opportunities, real-world problems, and different courses of action to fix a problem. The planning process varies from city to city but there are some commons steps that city planners use when making the Compressive. In Levy’s Contemporary Urban Planning ed. 11, lists out the common elements that are used in the compressive plan. These steps are: research, clarify community goals and objectives, plan formulation, plan implementation, and review and revise (Levy 124). One of the main problems with Cities: Skylines is that I am not able to tell what citizens are lacking or falling behind in without building the service myself or taking the time to figure it out. The twitter option is great for users, but over time users see the same tweet over and over again. Cities: Skylines does a great job of aging the population. This allows me to know how old my population is and the different health areas that need to be addressed. For example, I have a lot of senior citizens who are dying around 70 years old. I need to come up with a solution to expand my average lifespan and the age range of my population.

One of the other tools in Levy’s Contemporary Urban Planning ed. 11^th, mentions is the cohort survival (Levy 125). This tool is used by planners to use the present population and age them in the future. This allows the community to learn the morality of its citizens. This tool also presents a picture of the structure of the population in the long run. By having this picture, city planners can come to revise their plan to increase the size of younger or older populations. Cities: Skylines is a great tool for students who are interested in becoming planners or city planners who have an idea they want to try out. Although, Cities: is not a true representation of what planning a city is truly like.