At the meeting of the RA yesterday, we agreed to move the expansion discussion to the Forums. I will cross post to the RA discussion thread, so that RA members may have the benefit of full citizen comments here, yet use the closed forum for specific discussion.
These are 6 proposals currently under review, with notes from the Guild Secretary and the Treasurer.
1. No Expansion. This considers that we have no current need for a new sim, particularly with the new Citizenship Act, and retains all the funds in the CDS accounts for other uses.
Treasury effect: None. We still hold funds of over $10,000 in surplus, beyond the statutory reserve.
Guild issues: None, and we still have no community project to work on.
2. Expand NFS East. This involves expanding the city of NFS and rebuilding the Schloss.
Treasury effect: Provided that it is developed in the same fashion as prior sims, where the sale of the parcels substantially recovers the cost of the sim and the tier charged for the parcels covers the ongoing tier to Linden labs, this project has a very low net effect on the CDS accounts. It is noted however that land sales are down all over SL, and we do have a surplus of parcels in other sims.
Guild issues: This is the most challenging of the proposals from the standpoint of the geography, because not only must the connection to the City of NFS be considered, but also the elevations of surrounding sims and sims-to-be. The Guild Secretary estimates at least six months to be able to have this sim ready for use.
3. Expand NFS West. This is a hybrid proposal that would include primarily public use space, such as ski slopes and a sandbox. It could be developed in such a way as to accomodate commercial parcels near the sandbox, and possibly some residential parcels to offset the costs. The aim of this sim project would be to add value to the land of CDS in other sims by providing amenities.
Treasury effect: There would be little recovery of the initial cost of the sim, and without some tier or other revenue production, the cost of tier to Linden Lab would have to come from surplus collected from other sims. We need to be careful how this would be structured, to make sure the tier cost would not deplete the treasury.
Guild issues: This would also take 4-6 months to prepare, from a geographic standpoint, depending on the need for parcels. Consideration needs to be given to the current General Master Plan which calls for higher mountains on the west side of NFS.
4. Atlantis. This would be a low level, primarily underwanter sim, developed as usual,with underwater land parcels. The theme of Atlantis would be a new theme, but would flow naturally from our greek/roman areas, and provide surface "water" for boating as has been requested many times.
Treasury effect: With the general caveat that land sales are not good in SL generally, if these parcels could be sold,and similar tier charged the effect on the budget is neutral.
Guild issues: As these would be water level sims, preparation time from the guild standpoint would be short, probably 6-8 weeks.
5. Archipelago sims. These sims would be primarily water sims, with islands that could be sold.
Treasury effect: Revenue would come from the sale of both the island parcels and docking priveleges. These could potentially be homestead sims, at an initial cost from Linden Lab of $350, and tier of $125, so not as much risk to the treasury as full prim sims, yet still providing amenities some citizens wish to have.
Guild issues: These would be easy to build, at the lower levels of CDS, with preparation time probably 4-6 weeks.
NB. Homestead sims have avatar limits of 20 persons, and script limits are still being determined by Linden lab.