Town Planning/Designing Tips?

[morifarty]

So I recently had to restart my ACNL game, and now I have a town that is a completely blank slate. I have an idea of what I want, but I've never really designed a town before so I'm not entirely sure how to go about it, which is why I made this thread. If anyone out there is more experienced in the art of "town designing", I'd really appreciate tips on where/how/when to place things. ^^

I'm hoping to model my town off of a sleepy, dreary, "Pacific Northwest Gothic" town. This means lots of Pine Trees, clovers, mushrooms, tree stumps, white flowers, and maybe some holly bushes. I was also hoping to put bamboo in my river if that's even possible? When it comes to paths, I was hoping just to make some dirt foot trails by running over the same path over and over to get rid of the grass on the paths I'd like to have. I'm also hoping to include the following PWPs:
Caf?
Campsite
Classic Police Station
Zen Bell
Log Bench
Bus Stop
Streetlight
Lighthouse
Stone Tablet
Totem Pole

And maybe more. I'm just curious as to how to place them intelligently and keep my town looking nice. Any and all advice is needed, thank you!

 

[WonderK]

Survey the entire map. I mean this. You need to get the perfect map layout that suits your needs right off the bat since this can't be changed in the future. You should use patterns and plan out walk ways and house placements if you are going to plot reset. This is basically what I did for my town.