Town Ordinance

The Town Ordinance is one of the improvement options the player has as mayor in their town in New Leaf. The other role is the ability to create Public Works Projects. There are four ordinances in total, and they affect the way in which the town operates. They cost 20,000 Bells each to enact and can be changed in the Town Hall. There can only be one ordinance in effect at a time, and an active Ordinance can be cancelled for free. Cancelling or enacting an ordinance takes effect the following day at 6:00 AM.

When an ordinance has been active long enough, villagers may start to comment about it. For example, they may say they are losing sleep due to the Early Bird or Night Owl ordinance.

In New Horizons, it makes a return as Island Ordinances, which the player can do as resident representative in their island in New Horizons.

Ordinances

Beautiful Town/Island Ordinance

“	Great idea, Mayor! I can see it now... A town where flowers live forever and weeds hardly ever grow. Ooh! And no garbage or cockroaches!	”
	― Isabelle, explaining "Beautiful Town"

The Beautiful Ordinance helps keep the town looking neat and tidy. The purpose of this is to better accommodate players who might not be able to visit and help maintain their town on a daily basis. The key benefits of choosing this ordinance are:

• Villagers are more likely to water or plant flowers (Planting flowers is only exclusive to New Leaf)
• Time traveling does not affect the town's environment
• Cockroaches will not appear at all
• Weeds will appear less often
• Hybrids are 20% more likely to spawn
• Trash will no longer be fished out of the water
• Flowers do not die
• The player is less likely to get bedhead

Early Bird Town

“	Great idea, Mayor! I can see it now... A town where citizens wake up early feeling refreshed and ready to seize the day!	”
	― Isabelle, explaining "Early-Bird Town"

Under the Early Bird Ordinance, villagers wake up earlier and shops open earlier. This ordinance is optimal if the player is more likely to be playing in the morning.

Once enacted, villagers will change their sleep schedule to the following:

• Normal: 12 AM - 5 AM
• Peppy: 1 AM - 7 AM
• Snooty: 2 AM - 8 AM
• Sisterly: 3 AM - 8:30 AM
• Lazy: 11 PM - 7:30 AM
• Jock: 12 AM - 6 AM
• Smug: 2 AM - 7 AM
• Cranky: 4 AM - 8 AM

Likewise, Nookling stores will change their opening hours to the following:

• Nookling Junction: 6:00am - 10:00pm (2 hours earlier)
• T&T Mart: 6:00am - 12:00am (1 hour earlier)
• Super T&T: 6:00am - 8:00pm (3 hours earlier)
• T.I.Y.: 6:00am - 11:00pm (4 hours earlier)
• T&T Emporium: 6:00am - 9:00pm (3 hours earlier)

Other businesses without all-day hours, except Club LOL (which has fixed opening hours), will change their opening hours to the following:

• Nook's Homes: 7:00am - 12:00am (3 hours earlier)
• Able Sisters: 7:00am - 9:00am (3 hours earlier)
• Re-Tail: 6:00am - 11:00pm (3 hours earlier)
• Gardening Store: 7:00am - 8:00pm (2 hours earlier)
• Kicks: 7:00am - 8:00pm (3 hours earlier)
• Shampoodle: 7:00am - 8:00pm (3 hours earlier)
• Fortune Shop: 6:00am - 7:00pm (3 hours earlier)
• Crazy Redd's - 7:00am - 12:00am (3 hours earlier)

Night Owl Town

“	Great idea, Mayor! I can see it now... A town where the stores stay open late and the citizens socialize until the wee hours of the night!	”
	― Isabelle, explaining "Night-Owl Town"

Under the Night Owl Ordinance, villagers will go to sleep later and shops will close later. This ordinance is optimal for players who are busy in the day due to other commitments.

Once enacted, villagers will change their sleep schedule to the following:

• Normal: 2 AM - 6 AM
• Peppy: 3 AM - 9 AM
• Snooty: 4 AM - 9:30 AM
• Sisterly: 5:30 AM - 11 AM
• Lazy: 1:30 AM - 9 AM
• Jock: 2:30 AM - 7 AM
• Smug: 3:30 AM - 8:30 AM
• Cranky: 6 AM - 10 AM

Likewise, Nookling stores will change their opening hours to the following:

• Nookling Junction: 8:00am - 12:00am (2 hours later)
• T&T Mart: 7:00am - 5:00am (5 hours later)
• Super T&T: 9:00am - 12:00am (4 hours later)
• T.I.Y.: 10:00am - 3:00am (4 hours later)
• T&T Emporium: 9:00am - 12:00am (3 hours later)

Other businesses without all-day hours, except Club LOL (which has fixed opening hours), will change their opening hours to the following:

• Nook's Homes: 10:00am - 12:00am (4 hours later)
• Able Sisters: 10:00am - 12:00am (3 hours later)
• Re-Tail: 9:00am - 2:00am (3 hours later)
• Gardening Store: 9:00am - 11:00pm (3 hours later)
• Kicks: 10:00am - 11:00pm (3 hours later)
• Shampoodle: 10:00am - 11:00pm (3 hours later)
• Fortune Shop: 9:00am - 11:00pm (4 hours later)
• Crazy Redd's - 10:00am - 4:00am (4 hours later)

Bell Boom/Wealthy Town

“	Great idea, Mayor! I can see it now... A town where the economy is rock solid and you can sell items for more Bells than you can imagine!	”
	― Isabelle, explaining "Wealthy Town"

The Bell Boom Ordinance (known as Wealthy Ordinance in the list) modifies the bell economy for the benefits of all town citizens. This ordinance changes the number of Bells the player may receive from selling and the cost of buying items, as well as increasing the size of the premium item list at Re-Tail. This is useful for wealthy mayors and players, as well as those who are looking to upgrade their house since the mortgage price stays the same no matter what. This ordinance additionally benefits greatly for players who regularly travel to Tortimer Island to catch expensive bugs and fish for purposes of profiting bells, as this can quickly pay off the downsides of increased purchase prices. Players whose economies depend on taking advantage of premium items at Re-Tail will also benefit greatly from this ordinance.

The key modifications from this ordinance are:

• Shops sell and buy most items for 1.2x of the original price (for example, a normal 100-bell pear would sell for 120 bells, or a 2,000-bell ruby would sell for 2,400 bells, but buying a shovel would cost 600 bells instead of 500). Premium items remain unaffected, capping at only 2.0x original price.
• Re-Tail's premium item list increases to two items instead of just one item.
• Items on Tortimer Island will cost 20% more medals while this ordinance is in effect (for example, a 10-medal toy hammer will cost 12 medals)

Note that the following paid services are unaffected by price adjustments, and therefore will always cost the same regardless of whether this ordinance is in effect or not:

• Mortgages from Nook's Homes
• Buying pro designs from the Able Sisters
• Town ordinance fees
• Tortimer Island travel departure fees
• Katrina's fortune-telling services
• Saharah's home makeover services
• Shampoodle stylization services
• Cyrus's furniture-customization services
• Custom exhibit rental purchase fees from the second-floor of the museum
• Coffee bought from The Roost

Also note that most services directly related to items involving pockets (i.e. buying, selling, or disposing of items), with exceptions of the turnip business as well as selling items to Leila, however, do change monetary value while this ordinance is in effect.

Gallery

Isabelle describing the Beautiful Town Ordinance

Isabelle describing the Early Bird Town Ordinance

Isabelle describing the Night Owl Town Ordinance

Isabelle describing the Bell Boom Town Ordinance

Tiffany commenting on the Wealthy Ordinance after a number of days running

Hippeux commenting on the Wealthy Ordinance after a number of days running

Trivia

• It takes 100,000 bells worth of sold items in order to break even the investment of the Bell Boom Ordinance. This is equivalent to the value of 1000 native fruits, 400 tropical fruits, 200 non-native fruits, or just under 167 perfect native fruits.
• The Bell Boom Ordinance does not affect the price or value of Halloween masks. These are the only known purchasable items that never change with this ordinance.