My town went from perfect to underdeveloped?

I've had perfect town status in Salem for a very long time. All of a sudden, Isabelle is telling me that the town is underdeveloped and that the residents want more PWPs. I haven't demolished any, so that number hasn't changed. The only thing I've been doing is planting more trees and bushes, because I want forested area in the northern section of town.

I recently pulled up most of the flowers I had, because the grass was dying. Watering flowers promotes grass growth, but walking on the flowers to get to them kills the grass. AC logic at work.

I've been looking online and have found conflicting information, so does anyone know if having more than 200 trees and bushes cause Isabelle to tell you to build more PWPs? My forest is almost done, and I could sacrifice some hedges, now that the paths are established, but I like the greenery.

Any help would be appreciated.

It's the extra trees. Cut down a bunch and you'll be back to perfect status.
The palm trees on the beach and fully grown bamboo also count as trees.
Just cut one by one and go to Isabelle in between them so you know the exact amount you can have without actually counting them all over town - at least I think that's the easiest way.
Bushes do not interfere at all though!

If you have the patience, mix bamboo in to keep the forest-y feel, cut down trees (make rare stumps! added bonus c and that should help, do you have 30 pwp's already? if not, try building some more forest style pwp's to add more balance to the town.

Thank you! I lopped several of the trees on the beach and have it back to perfect. I know how many more trees I want to plant to finish my forest, so I can take away a couple others in places.

And if bushes don't count, that helps. I don't use paths, so bushes often define both paths and residential areas.

Glad it helped! I'm also always on the brink of having too many trees, so I always check with Isabelle whenever I cut/plant anything x)

I also did not know this, thank you.