Population density in Illuminatia
Population density is highly encouraged in Illuminatia. Policy-makers and planners overseeing Illuminatia's settlement patterns understand that development of the built populated environment will be much more successful and sustainable if is maintained at a target density and is regulated in an intentional, structured, and strictly-regulated process. Illuminatian city and urban planning policy encourages highly-standardized, intentional, efficient, well-regulated development promoting community integrity and sociocultural strength.
Inefficient diffusion of population is kept at a minimum in Illuminatia to avoid problems that can arise from the inadequate or overly-costly investment that would be likely for rural communities. All new development must be established above a threshold at which social cohesion is high enough and economic friction is low enough for successful urban development.
Illuminatia is largely a civilization of cities as the urban style of development is considered to be more environmentally-responsible and less resource-intensive than the rural and sprawling semi-suburban and rural development. Housing construction is generally dense and urban development is primarily multi-use to ensure residents inhabit places that are near to their needs.
While Illuminatian government maintains centralized control over general population density and development patterns, policy specific to individual cities is the purview of local tertiary assemblies, which have well-defined jurisdictional boundaries that correspond precisely to the physical boundaries of their cities. Urban development is prohibited outside these boundaries, reducing issues of sprawl and uneven taxation and governance. Private land ownership is not allowed under Illuminatian law, allowing an ideal level of control over the land as a public resource, resulting in efficient and responsible management of that land and the development that takes place on it.
As Illuminatia was settled and as Illuminatia's first cities were planned, the expansion of the land area consumed by urban development was kept to a minimum while the density of that growth was increased to premeditated levels before outward growth was allowed. Meanwhile the establishment of new cities was reserved until the population to support these cities existed and the loss of that population from primary settlement cities would not cause those original cities to lose social cohesion and economic viability. The migration necessary to population newly-established cities is regulated through fully-voluntary incentive-based systems, allowing the mutual benefit of migrants contributing to the establishment of new cities as well as of the general public interest.
Illuminatia's cities were intentionally established within conurbations that place population centers nearby to one another in clusters, allowing for efficient transportation between population centers. These conurbations result in well-organized markets for commercial purposes, distinct delineated markets for mass media and mass communication, and well-defined regional social identities.
Per Lucidus guidelines for habitation and development of the Neonisi planet, it was imperative that human development on this new planet be as minimally impactful as possible to the existing natural environment, which is highly contrary to the development practices of historical archaeomodern Western civilization upon Earth which encouraged urban sprawl, gratuitous destruction of natural resources, and sparse, isolated inadequately-developed communities, resulting in the multitudinal environment and economic catastrophes experienced by that civilization. These guidelines were developed knowing that the successful human habitation of Neonisi and in turn the success of the Illuminatian branch of humanity would be much more likely if the population is kept above a certain density and settlement of low-density habitation is discouraged or strictly limited. It was understood that communities with populations below a certain threshold would likely exhibit a tendency toward insular societal structures that might enforce unnecessary narrow cultural norms and otherwise might be non-accepting of inward migration, which would be hazardous to the healthy survival of humanity in Illuminatia.
Illuminatian city and urban planning policy stipulates that new settlements are not allowed to be established until a population threshold is reached that will socially and economically support that community. These policies avoid the social isolation and economic torpor that would result from a community that is not sustainable. Rural communities are generally discouraged in Illuminatia because it would be impractical to maintain the public and social infrastructure necessary to support populations at the same robust level as is expected in Illuminatian urban centers. Illuminatian government understands that it would be inequitable to provide a poorer level of public infrastructure for these populations and that this would result in discriminatory development patterns in particular for rural areas. As a result, new cities may not be established without plans for a threshold of population to relocate to a planned city and without commitment from public and commercial entities for an adequate nucleus of development.