Welcome to New Toulouse
New Toulouse is a community based on the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, and its surrounding swamps and bayous, in the first quarter of the 20th century (1900–1925). To lease a parcel on this estate, a resident must agree to our covenant.
The climate of New Toulouse is humid subtropical; the vegetation is green all year long. In terms of architecture, New Toulouse adheres to the buildings and styles that would have existed in New Orleans around 1900, such as French Colonial, 18th-century Spanish, Acadian, shacks, and shanties. Architectural appearance is very important in New Toulouse.
We do not have a required dress code, but we recommend old-time attire, such as Edwardian, sack suits, flapper wear, overalls, Creole fashions, and straw hats.
New Toulouse is a historically themed community, but it is not a strict roleplay community. We welcome roleplayers, but please feel free to be yourself, whether you are a roleplayer or not. New Toulouse residents are expected to be polite and considerate to others. We ban for antisocial, impolite behavior. We do not ban based on personal arguments or disagreements.
You can own land in New Toulouse by purchasing a parcel and paying weekly rent via the rent meter system. A 512 square-meter parcel rents for L$600 per week and can hold 468 prims. All other lot sizes scale up and down from there in price and in prim capacity. (Many tenants pay a grandfathered lower rate, but this rate cannot be transferred as part of a private land sale.) The purchase of a parcel is technically the purchase of rental rights. You have the right to sell your parcel at any amount you choose, as long as you inform the estate owner of the sale and the buyer agrees to abide by the covenant.
New Toulouse has approximately one hundred residents. We have regular and special events and a strong sense of community. Those interested in local news and events are advised to join the Gens de New Toulouse group and monitor the community website.
Architectural Integrity and Appearance
New Toulouse’s appearance is that of a real place, authentic in terms of architecture and landscaping. When visitors explore our community, they should feel as if they are walking in an actual world location. New Toulouse’s exterior look and feel must be natural. You are free to do whatever you want with the interior of your home, but from the outside, New Toulouse needs to look “real.”
The terms “interior” and “exterior” generally refer to the visibility of the item, not the item’s location. Items inside your builds that are visible from the exterior are subject to the covenant as if they were exterior items.
All plants, trees, buildings, etc. must look as they would look in the actual world–no neon plants or sparkles bursting from a tree.
Please do not use the “full bright” setting on any of your outdoor objects, except for light sources.
Please keep your parcel landscaping in alignment with the New Toulouse climate and geology, which are based upon the vicinity of New Orleans. There are no natural rocks or hills here, and the soils are river-deposited silt: flat and low-lying. New Toulouse is subject to flooding, and several feet of water will cover the land when a hurricane makes landfall.
- No modern electric lights. Vintage electric and gas lights are okay in the city.
- Keep vendors inside of your buildings.
- Please limit the use of hovertext, and be certain that it is not visible through your neighbor’s wall.
- All New Toulouse regions are zoned residential/commercial/educational, but no commerce is permitted in the cemetery.
- No global banlines. You do have the right to ban specific individuals from your parcel.
- No temp-rezzers.
- No security devices below 500 meters.
- Keep skyboxes and build platforms above 500 meters. When constructing a building, please do so in the sky and only place it at ground level when it is ready.
- No obscenely tall or large builds that obstruct your neighbors’ view of the region.
- No subleasing.
- No openly sexual activity in public, and no public nudity at the ground level of the estate. Artistic use of nudity is allowed if you have a permit from the mayor’s office.
- New Toulouse has a small zombie problem from time to time. Please use vintage/era-appropriate weapons when participating in organized zombie hunts.
- No farms for breedable animals. You can keep breedable animals on your parcel, but no more than four in one region at a time.
- No Adult-rated items (i.e., items identified as “Adult” by their creator, or their script or animation content).
- No age-play intimate activity: no activity simulating inappropriate conduct between minors, or between adults and minors.
Evictions
If you do not pay your tier and the meter runs out, you are considered to have abandoned your land, and you forfeit all rights to your land. We will reclaim the land and return the objects on your land to your inventory or to those of their owners, subject to the behavior of the Linden Lab servers. We are not responsible for any loss of inventory should we have to clear any parcel. If you know you are leaving, please remove the items yourself.
If you believe you will be away for a long time due to illness, vacation, or any other reason, you will need to prepay the meter for extra time in advance. You can pay tier on your parcel up to six weeks in advance, or longer if you make special arrangements with us.
Builds
Theme is of the utmost importance in New Toulouse. When placing a build on your land, you must use one that fits the look and feel of New Orleans and its surrounding areas in 1900–1925. If you are unsure about the appropriateness of a build, please ask! The estate’s original designer and owner, Carricre Wind, created many free buildings for New Toulouse. The builds are in a chest in the corner of Lafitte’s Old Primsmith Bar. Use the following link to go to Lafitte’s:
free builds
Region-Specific Zoning
New Toulouse
Our first region is based on the New Orleans French Quarter in the first 25 years of the 20th century. You must use builds that meet that standard. There should be as little “green space” as possible on your parcel. Either place one or more buildings to cover it, build a wall around the parcel perimeter, or pave the buffers between your build and the streets. New Toulouse has a Shotgun Row that runs along the east side of the region. If you live on Shotgun Row, you must use a shotgun house and no other style of build. No commerce is permitted in the cemetery, and interment is above ground in tombs.
New Toulouse Bayou
Our second region is a swamp. It requires ramshackle, weathered houses. Do not be surprised or hurt if you are informed that your new build is “too pretty” for Bayou. Shacks on stilts are ideal. There is no electrical service in Bayou; electrical lighting is not permitted. The soft soils will not support heavy structures, and paving sinks out of sight at the first rainfall. The beautiful trees and green spaces make Bayou a very special place. Please provide ample vegetation on your parcel; if you want some help with this, ask!
Refunds
No refunds of any kind, either on tier or rental rights.
Rental Rights and Leasing
Residents in good standing who have paid a rental rights fee enjoy the following rights:
- To lease land in New Toulouse, as an individual or group
- To use and access your land as you choose, within the rules of this covenant
- To sell your rental rights to another, as long as that individual agrees to this covenant and you inform us of the rental rights sale
Parcel Trading
If you would like to trade into a different available parcel, we will move you at no additional cost to you, and we will transfer your tier balance to your new meter, adjusting it according to the size of your new parcel.
As New Toulouse expands, it is possible that we will add a region that replaces your ocean view with contiguous land. If you are a landowner on the border of a region and a new region replaces your ocean view, you will be given the opportunity to switch to an equal or comparably sized parcel in the new region at no cost.
Resident Disputes
We will not become involved in resident disputes. We recognize one owner per parcel:
- If the land is not group-owned, the avatar name that owns the land in the “About Land” window
- If the land is group-owned, the person whose name is on the meter
Hostility should not be returned in kind. If there is an issue between two people (or estate management), please try to be civil.
Discrimination and Offensive Behavior
We will not tolerate discrimination in any form, period. If we witness or if someone shows us evidence of discrimination, we will ban anyone involved, even tenants.
We will ban any avatars wearing Nazi uniforms, Knights of the White Camellia robes, KKK robes, or Confederate flags. We understand that some people use these in roleplay, but we do not allow such roleplay in New Toulouse.
We will not tolerate any age-play activity that suggests intimate contact between an adult and a minor or that suggests intimate contact between minors. Any action that creates the merest suspicion of such activity, including belonging to any group whose name or whose description suggests such activities, will result in banning, eviction, and the filing of an abuse report.
Reclaimed Land
If we reclaim your land due to repeated offenses against common sense or this covenant, you will not receive a refund of the land purchase price or your remaining rent.
If you abandon your land, you will not receive a refund of the land purchase price or your remaining rent, if any. Failure to pay your tier on time is considered abandonment.
If we temporarily reclaim your land for management purposes, we will set the land for sale back to your name at L$1.
Transferring Your Land
You may transfer the parcel you rent to anyone at any time. You have the ability to set your land for sale yourself if you would like to sell your parcel. It is your duty to inform potential new owners of the weekly rent fee, and you must inform us of the transfer so we can update the tier meter with the new tenant’s name.
Region Transfers / Dissolution
While you may sell your land to other residents, we make no guarantee that anyone will be able to recover value from land in New Toulouse. Should entire regions ever need to go, we will do our best to relocate remaining residents to existing regions with comparable properties. If New Toulouse fails, we will be unable to refund anything.
Please contact me for questions, clarifications, and estate support.
Thank you, and welcome!
Henri Godenot