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.
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
- 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.
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 PM
- Peppy: 1 AM - 7 PM
- Snooty: 2 AM - 8 PM
- Uchi: 3 AM - 8:30 PM
- Lazy: 11 PM - 7:30 PM
- Jock: 12 AM - 6 PM
- Smug: 2 AM - 7 PM
- Cranky: 4 AM - 8 PM
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 PM
- Peppy: 3 AM - 9 PM
- Snooty: 4 AM - 9:30 PM
- Uchi: 5:30 AM - 11 PM
- Lazy: 1:30 AM - 9 PM
- Jock: 2:30 AM - 7 PM
- Smug: 3:30 AM - 8:30 PM
- Cranky: 6 AM - 10 PM
Bell Boom/Wealthy Town
The Bell Boom Ordinance (known as Wealthy Ordinance in the list) changes the number of Bells the player may receive from selling and the cost of buying items. 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. The key benefits of this ordinance are: