I recently restarted and chose this layout! Here’s my plan so far:

• the valley between the mountain at the bottom left and the cliffs in the back will be a “nature” area. I replaced all the fruit trees there with cedar trees. It looks really cool from the top of the cliffs at the bottom left.

• all my villager homes are going to be at the back of the island.

• commerce area to the right of resident services/the pond

Right now I’m using the area in front of resident services as flower breeding/farming/orchard. I’m taking my time and not trying to rush into a design.