I’m reaching out because my local area is completely barren when it comes to PokéStops, Gyms, and Raids. Our previous neighborhood was lacking too, but not nearly this bad. Right now, I have to drive about 10 minutes just to reach a park with a somewhat decent number of stops.
I’ve been Level 50 for a while now and am finally ready to start submitting nominations for PokéStops in my immediate area—mainly places I frequent for walks and where I take my dogs. I’ve reviewed the official criteria for nominations and understand what’s acceptable, but I still have a few questions and was hoping for some input.
My neighborhood (and the nearby ones) are pretty standard—just quiet, safe residential streets with nothing particularly artistic or eye-catching. It’s a great place to get exercise and catch Pokémon, but I’m struggling to find anything that would clearly meet the nomination guidelines. Given that, I was wondering if any of you have suggestions or examples of what’s been approved in your own areas, especially when dealing with more “typical” neighborhoods.
Also, I have a question about the “blue squares” (S2 cells) where only one PokéStop is allowed per square. My son just got back from a trip to Japan and said there were PokéStops and Gyms everywhere—sometimes multiple ones in the same area that would normally be limited by the square rule here. Is that true, and if so, is it a regional difference in how Niantic applies the system?
He also mentioned that a lot of the stops there were just ordinary signs or manhole covers—not especially artistic or unique. Are those types of nominations generally considered safe or likely to be approved?
Any insight, advice, or examples you can share would be hugely appreciated!
From your description I assume that you are somewhere in the USA?
Town planning in the USA quite often creates areas with a lot of houses but not much else.
Are there any Greenways for walking?
If you are comfortable and could give the area, there are wayfinders in here who love to look for things to help.
With regards to other places like Japan, a lot of stops and gyms may be sponsored and so the normal rules don’t apply. And it sounds as though he was in a very different kind of area.
This is true, things can get a bit out of sinc due to “Sponsored Stops” and previously stops moved by staff could cause breaking of the rule.
You also get areas that are located where the 4 cells connect so technically you could get 4 stops extremely close but they all just fall in to their own cell.
It sounds like you live in a pretty standard suburban residential neighborhood, with many SFPRP (single family private residential properties) and not much else. I think many people have found it hard to find eligible POIs to nominate in these areas, and that’s due to the design of these neighborhoods being mainly SFPRP and not much else. And if there is anything that is on SFPFP, those are ineligible.
Even though this talks about rural areas, it can be helpful for all areas, so you may want to check it out: Tips for Rural Nominators
And yes, neighborhoods in different parts of the world may have more multi-family homes, and those may have eligible POIs. The “dream” of a house with a yard for one family isn’t the same in other countries as it is in the US.
I tidied up your post a bit as you had posted the template from another section of the forum.
As for the manhole covers in Japan, these are Poké Lids which are a special thing in Japan and a regular manhole cover wouldn’t meet criteria.
If you have a “closed” estate/neighbourhood, maybe you have playgrounds, a church, community centre which should be relatively easy to explain how they meet criteria.
Thanks a bunch for the replies! Yeah I live in Draper, Utah in the US. This is the coordinates from google maps of my general area, 40.535469, -111.910346. No greenways or greenbelts nearby. There is a river and a trail running along it that I created a route on. One church with 3 stops and one park with 2. The further away park down by the river and thats about it.
Yep, pretty much what I was thinking: suburban neighborhood typical in the US. The suburbs of Salt Lake City seem to have more and more of these popping up. Really, it’s bad planning on the part of the developers.
I think most US developers need to start thinking that not everyone wants to live in a house, have to take care of a lawn, maybe shovel snow in the winter, etc. I live by myself, and owning my own home has more cons than pros for me. And many here that don’t live in the US have noted how odd our neighborhoods are developed, with many being more vehicle dependent than walk/bike/public transit dependent.
Zoning laws can also be an issue in some areas. In some of the older neighborhoods where I live, they have smaller lot sizes for the SFPRP, and so a homeowner may have to get zoned as an unconventional plot before they can even look at doing any improvements to their homes. Crazy, but true. Or there may be a developer that wants to build a mix use building, one with office/retail space on the first floor and apartments above, but that land may be zoned as SFPRP, so they have to go to the city zoning commission then city council just for approval. Then there are the cities that have zoning laws that are decades old, 40-50 years, and are quite outdated and don’t meet the growth of their cities.
@Pokher66 How far out are you looking to nominate? As said above, looks like urban sprawl. But all hope is not lost unless you are looking for a couch stop.
I was hoping to get them around the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods so when I’m out walking the girls I’m hitting pokestops on the way. It’s sounding like the odds of that happening are basically zero though. I’ll go drive down there and check out where you circled, thank you!!
Do you think Niantic will ever adjust the criteria for areas like this? I know they use the spots as stuff across all their games but maybe in urban areas they allow generalized stops but don’t include them across their games. Is there a way to submit suggestions like this?
I know that the ideal for most is a stop they can reach whilst laid on the couch but personally I spent several years calling adult PoGo players “sad” as its a kids game
Health Issues mean I need to get out more as exercise (so easy to make excuse not to go out, much harder to start again). PoGo gives me the reason to get out so the closest stop being about 1/4 mile away is fine for me.
Also got made redundant last year and again health issues means it could be a slow return to employment so PoGo gives me a reason to get out the house.
Back to the topic, don’t give up on getting waypoints, it is just harder. Several villages around here have border markers as seen below which have been accepted, Notice Boards? Community Halls?
I doubt they’d adjust for things that are on SFPRP, as some homeowners may not want a bunch of people on their property during a raid day in PoGo, if there was a gym there, for example. There could also be issues with players possibly trespassing or something else that’s unlawful, and that could possibly turn into a big legal mess.
This is also more of a suburban area than urban, as most urban areas have a mixture of buildings and not as many SFPRP. Many urban areas have mixed-use buildings, with businesses and apartments, restaurants, shops, etc, and many are within walking distance. Suburban areas tend not to have any of these buildings, are mostly SFPRP, and one has to drive to get to places to do business, like driving to the nearest grocery store or restaurants, for example.
And as I mentioned earlier, zoning laws can be an issue, too. Some places in the US don’t have the best zoning laws, which is why you can end up with a neighborhood full of SFPRP.
