Parks and recreation, when built, have the following positive effects:
- They raise the desirability around themselves.
- They increase the residential demand cap.
- They help reduce air pollution (not by much, though).
- They are needed for high-wealth residents to move in.
As such, as your city grows larger it becomes important to build parks. By nature, parks do not need a road connection.
Budget and funding[edit]
Unlike the previous versions of SimCity, SimCity 4's parks cost money to maintain so be sure that your budget is close to balanced before you attempt to build parks. One tip to remember is that if you're building a real world city, such as the San Francisco or New York City scenarios, you will notice that there are extremely large parks in these regions in real life, such as Angel Island in San Francisco. When confronted with a park like Angel Island or Jamaica Bay in New York City, it's best not to actually zone these areas as parks at all. It's a waste of money to maintain mainly because in large nature parks, large game like deer can be found roaming, similar to real life. If you try to zone the park, this wild life gets destroyed, which is not realistic so be careful when zoning a park area and check how it will affect your budget.
The beach is commonly considered the best park, due to its low cost and high effect on desirability. However, since it can only be built along coasts, its use is limited to certain maps. The other parks can be built virtually anywhere. Of those, the various plazas are catered to commercial districts, while the other buildings are good for residential areas.
The following table shows the various parks' statistics. Res demand refers to the amount the residential demand cap is raised by this building, while Res and Com desirability refer to the desirability increase for residential and commercial buildings, respectively. Note that while certain rewards could also be considered parks due to their similar effects, they're not listed here.
| Name | Cons- truc- tion Cost |
Main- tena- nce Cost |
Re- sid- ent- ial de- ma- nd |
Re- sid- ent- ial de- sir- abi- lity |
Com- mer- cial desir- abi- lity |
Re- sid- ent- ial de- ma- nd per § |
Re- sid- ent- ial de- sir- abi- lity per § |
Com- mer- cial dema- nd per § |
W i d t h |
L e n g t h |
A r e a |
Re- sid- ent- ial de- ma- nd per Tile |
Re- sid- ent- ial de- sir- abi- lity per Tile |
Com- mer- cial de- sir- abi- lity per Tile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Paved Area | §40 | §5 | 250 | 10 | 30 | 50 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 250 | 10 | 30 |
| Open Grass Area | §40 | §5 | 250 | 30 | 20 | 50 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 250 | 30 | 20 |
| Small Park Green | §40 | §5 | 250 | 50 | 30 | 50 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 250 | 50 | 30 |
| Community Garden | §70 | §5 | 250 | 40 | 0 | 50 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 250 | 40 | 0 |
| Beach | §70 | §5 | 250 | 80 | 50 | 50 | 16 | 16 | 5 | 7 | 35 | 7.14 | 2.29 | 1.43 |
| Small Flower Garden | §80 | §5 | 750 | 60 | 20 | 150 | 12 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 750 | 60 | 20 |
| Playground | §90 | §10 | 1000 | 60 | 0 | 100 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1000 | 60 | 0 |
| Gazebo | §90 | §10 | 1000 | 40 | 20 | 100 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1000 | 40 | 20 |
| Ranger Station | §90 | §10 | 1000 | 20 | 0 | 100 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 500 | 10 | 0 |
| Basketball Court | §90 | §10 | 1000 | 30 | 0 | 100 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 500 | 15 | 0 |
| Small Plaza | §90 | §10 | 1000 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 2.5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1000 | 25 | 50 |
| Tennis Court | §130 | §15 | 4000 | 30 | 0 | 266.67 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2000 | 15 | 0 |
| Medium Park Green | §160 | §15 | 1000 | 60 | 20 | 66.67 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 250 | 15 | 5 |
| Medium Flower Garden | §170 | §20 | 3000 | 70 | 20 | 150 | 3.5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 750 | 17.5 | 5 |
| Medium Playground | §210 | §25 | 3000 | 75 | 0 | 120 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 750 | 18.75 | 0 |
| Skateboard Park | §210 | §25 | 4000 | 30 | 0 | 160 | 1.2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2000 | 15 | 0 |
| Medium Plaza | §210 | §25 | 4000 | 25 | 60 | 160 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1000 | 6.25 | 15 |
| Large Flower Garden | §310 | §35 | 7000 | 85 | 35 | 200 | 2.43 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 777.78 | 9.44 | 3.89 |
| Large Park Green | §320 | §25 | 2500 | 75 | 30 | 100 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 277.78 | 8.33 | 3.33 |
| Soccer Field | §340 | §35 | 5000 | 30 | 20 | 142.86 | 0.86 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 15 | 333.33 | 2 | 1.33 |
| Softball Field | §400 | §35 | 6000 | 30 | 20 | 171.43 | 0.86 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 666.67 | 3.33 | 2.22 |
| Large Plaza | §400 | §35 | 9000 | 35 | 80 | 257.14 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 1000 | 3.89 | 8.89 |