This city employs some unique features that help contribute to its population. In order for it to stay in the same class as MaxiANC, no structural cheats were used. It is completely natural other than using money help to relieve budget balancing stress.

As you can see in the zone map above, this city is compact and organized.All the arcologies (the big black area) are grouped together since they do not require roads. The support services are also grouped together for the same purpose. This means that more land space can be devoted to zones that count toward the population.

When considering a grid layout, I kept in mind that a zone must be no more than 3 tile lengths away from a road. Thus, I used the 6xX method for best efficiency. Using a tighter road layout would mean that there would be more roads where there could be tiles counting toward the population.

Since 3x3 zones are denser than 2x2 and 1x1 zones (on a per-acre basis), it's only natural to want only 3x3 zones. But for a 3x3 zone to develop, it must be placed at an intersection. With this in mind, you would think that creating a grid with 6x6 zone squares surrounded by roads would be best. Not really, the roads in such a setup would use up a lot of space. So, instead of running roads completely through the 6xX sections, I placed a single road tile along the lengthy road strips, with 6 tiles in between each. This works well, as it tricks the simulator into thinking that the zone is on an intersection without building an entire road strip. Thus, the land that a full road would have taken up can be used for more zoning, and the commercial zones are allowed to develop into 3x3 buildings.

All the industrial zones were put on the outside of the map, since half their pollution will blow off the edge of the city. In addition, light density strips of industrial zones were put around the center of the city, to help trip generation between the 3 zone types.

Since commercial and industrial populations must approximately equal residential populations, I had to lay two of the 6xX residential sections next to each other (as seen in the map). This presented a problem- the sims accessing the road between the two residential sections could not readily access their work zones (the commercial sections). So, instead of running roads perpendicular to the existing ones, which would take up a massive amount of space, I used subway line instead. The subway lines, running perpendicular to the long roads, allow the sims to commute to their jobs.

What? How does this work, you say? Well, the basic motive of using it is for higher zone density:

When a zone develops, it checks its surroundings and builds according to the conditions around it. The primary factor affecting how big a zone develops is land value. The higher the land value, the denser a zone will grow. Let's say you have a city with a lot of trees. Trees boost value to the surrounding area. In this city, you zone a large district of commercial zones over all the trees. You run power lines all throughout the zoned land, and it grows very fast. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that all the zones will grow to their full potential. Why? Well, when one of the commercial zones starts to grow, it takes into account its land value. The nearby trees help this value, but before the zone can get very big, a neighboring zone grows in the place of the trees and steals that added value from the zone. So, that zone has lost its potential to become very dense.

When using time-delay zoning, you basically zone a 3x3 area, surround it with trees, and wait until it develops into a 3x3 zone. Then you zone its neighbor, and do the same for it. Seem simple enough? There's more...

Time-delay zoning works another way, too. You probably know that 2x2 zones are denser than 1x1 zones. So, wouldn't it make sense to zone only for 2x2 zones? Sure, all you have to do it lay down a strip of dense zoning and there you have it! Well, sort of. When you do this, 2x2 zones will develop when possible, meaning that you won't ever have a solid strip of 2x2 zones since 1x1 buildings will get in the way of the 2x2-only pattern. So, to get more 2x2 zones to develop in the city, I use what I call the checkerboard technique. See the screen shot below.

What? We're not playing games, are we? Nah, this method is simple. All I did was zone 2x2 squares of dense residential zones into a checkerboard pattern as shown above. This way, I can regulate exactly where each 2x2 zone will grow, since their bases are preset. On the other hand, when you zone a solid strip, you have less control since the zones grow where they want to grow. The 2x2 zoned area in the checkerboard pattern are given power and allowed to develop. Once they do, the rest of the empty checkerboard areas are filled in, where they will grow into 2x2 buildings as well. You have to remember that residential zones will not mature into 3x3 zones nearly as easy as commercial or industrial zones, since they are more sensitive to land value and other factors. Thus, this method works out quite well.

Even though a water system in a city takes up precious space, and does very little to help a city grow, I still feel that they are important. After all, how are the sims gonna flush their toilets and take showers otherwise? When putting in the water system, I used the water pumps as a buffer zone between the residential and industrial zones, to keep the harmful pollution away from the residents. At the same same, the pumps are providing water, so they get used for two purposes. To help their efficiency, a water tile is placed between every two pumps.