APA Zoning Practice
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ZONING PRACTICE OCTOBER 2017 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION ISSUE NUMBER 10 PRACTICE DIGITAL ZONING CODES 10 Digital Zoning Codes and Comprehensive Plans By Peter Sullivan, aicp The printed page is not extinct, but elec- one-third of planning agencies meeting the does provide greater visual interest for the tronic publishing is becoming a standard gold standard. Among the group that did reader, the downside of a custom layout format for the digital age. From page-flipping meet the gold standard, there were multiple is that it can be more difficult to revise online documents to custom-built websites, methods for producing these documents. and maintain, especially if it is reliant there are dozens of applications and services These approaches include a mix of self- on advanced software that incorporates that can create a modern digital document. publishing and third-party services. objects, paths, layers, and other advanced But which tools are best for publishing long, Some well-known third-party options page layout features. highly structured documents, like zoning include codification services, provided by Authors should also consider that a codes and comprehensive plans? firms such as Code Publishing Company, document finely tuned for the printed page This article surveys options for pub- Municipal Code Corporation, Coded Sys- will not necessarily provide the same look lishing modern, interactive documents in a tems, General Code, and American Legal, and function on a screen. Fortunately, there feature-rich, web-ready format. It identifies in addition to digital publishing. While are self-publishing methods that efficiently eight popular digital publishing methods and there are a variety of reasons for utilizing balance this print-versus-web dilemma. summarizes key trade-offs among the various these services, this article focuses on self- approaches. The article also describes how to publishing tools. DIGITAL PUBLISHING METHODS evaluate which method is best suited to meet One of the goals of this article is to The term “digital zoning code” or “digital the needs of those working in a public-sector ensure that authors are aware that the comprehensive plan” implies the presence of agency and recommends project manage- choices for digital publishing are not lim- certain navigational features and document ment strategies for deploying, testing, and ited to either publishing a static PDF on a behaviors beyond static text and images maintaining new software and online work website or fully outsourcing document host- displayed on a screen. These features and products. The conclusion identifies a basic ing to a third-party vendor. Several of the behaviors become available (or can be set of prerequisites for digital publishing. in-house publishing methods presented in enabled) through a combination of specific this article are affordable, user-friendly, and file formats, authoring workflows, and end- WHY DIGITAL PUBLISHING? feature-rich, and exceed the Urban Insight user settings. For the efficient publication In an era of 140-character tweets and gold standard. of digital zoning codes and comprehensive round-the-clock media, urban planners are The Urban Insight report also evalu- plans, this article recommends digital pub- challenged to deliver complex information ated digital publication of comprehensive lishing methods that include, at a minimum, in a clear and engaging manner. So what are plans, which is another type of planning the following basic characteristics: planning agencies doing to address this chal- agency publication that benefits from lenge? In 2016, Urban Insight collected data enhanced digital features but also raises a • Internal and external hyperlinks from more than 600 U.S. local government number of management issues due to docu- • Web-based navigation features and cus- planning agencies about various technology- ment length and complexity. In comparison tomizable display options related topics, such as digital publishing, to online zoning codes, comprehensive • A table of contents and intuitive headings social media, online permitting, and web- plans are skewed even further away from • A combination of authoring, editing, and based geographic information systems (GIS). the gold standard, and there are greater publishing capabilities It published its findings earlier this year in instances in which the document is not • A reasonable learning curve and intuitive City Planning Department Technology Bench- available online in any format. workflow marking Survey. As a document, comprehensive plans • Robust customer support or technical With respect to digital publishing, this follow a less hierarchical structure and are documentation report identifies a gold standard based on more likely to be produced with flexible ease of use, information retrieval, and com- layout software like Microsoft Publisher There are countless software applica- pliance with popular computing devices and or Adobe InDesign. In contrast, zoning tions and services capable of organizing software. The standard includes an HTML codes are traditionally prepared in a word and publishing content on a webpage, from format, mobile responsive design, and full processor, which maintains hierarchical simple text editors like Windows Notepad, search capabilities. structure and automates the text updates to integrated site design, development, The data shows that the usability of (e.g. multilevel lists, cross-references, and and publishing applications like Adobe online zoning codes is mixed, with only tables of contents). While creative design Dreamweaver. ZONINGPRACTICE 10.17 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION | page 2 But authors should be selective when of user-friendly publishing software that consider the second recommendation, choosing a digital publishing method resolves the functional disadvantages of the which is to use PDF bookmarks. By adding because documents like zoning codes and scanning-to-PDF workflow. As a publishing bookmarks at appropriate sections and comprehensive plans demand a certain method, scanned PDFs are identified in this subsections, authors can generate a run- amount of formatting automation to achieve article to mark the lowest end of the feature- ning table of contents within the document a reasonable level of publishing efficiency. availability spectrum. to help convey document structure and aid The methods described below are well suited navigation. Third, PDFs do allow for the to this publishing task, presented in increas- Static PDFs creation of internal and external hyperlinks. ing order of complexity and customization. Static PDFs are widely used for in-house Although they are manually maintained, the The methods highlighted in the middle digital publishing. While the text in static use of hyperlinks can significantly enhance of the chart in the graphic below are at the PDFs is searchable, the results are sequen- the performance of a PDF. point in the cost and complexity spectrum, tial—meaning the author must step through where all the digital publishing characteris- search results across the document one at a Interactive PDFs tics become available. The decision then is time. This is less desirable in comparison to Interactive PDFs are an enhanced version whether additional publishing sophistication prioritized search (a listing of results based of a static PDF. They include the same is worth the extra cost (for staff time), and on relevance), which is offered through search limitations; however, the docu- whether this service will be performed in- other recommended publishing described ment’s appearance and navigation is greatly house or by a third-party vendor. in this article. improved through the presence of a running Weaknesses with search notwith- header that includes buttons, which can standing, there are three ways authors activate features such as a table of contents, Cost and complexity of scroll zone, slide show, or video. digital publishing. Peter Sullivan E-book Content management/ Open source system E-books include a page-flipping visual effect and offer a range of navigation features. The Knowledge base benefit of this method is that the software HTML site automates the published document’s design and structure. The typical workflow is that an Document processor existing, static PDF is imported into the pro- gram, and then the author overlays design E-book elements, layout controls, and navigation elements. E-books are relatively affordable Interactive PDFs and user-friendly “off-the-shelf” solutions; Static PDFs however, one downside is that the content Cost (labor and/or Scanned PDFs does not live natively within the software. dollars) This means that authors can end up main- Complexity taining two versions: the source file (created with either a word processing or page layout Scanned PDFs can manage PDF documents so that they program) and the e-book digital file. Creating PDFs by scanning printed docu- comply with the basic digital publishing Some popular e-book software appli- ments is not recommended for three characteristics described above. First, static cations convert a PDF file to a Shockwave reasons. First, the scanning process often PDFs should not be broken into separate Flash file to render the page-flipping effects. renders content completely unsearchable. files linked from a webpage. This practice E-books should not be confused, however, Second, it is more difficult to create, manage, emerged as a workaround to circumvent with the EPUB file format, which is a technical and use hyperlinks