City Zoning Ordinances Made Easy with the Right Technology

It is believed that the first city zoning ordinances went into effect in the early 1900s in New York City. This was the dawn of the age of the skyscraper and the there was a fear that light would never reach the ground below if they kept springing up so closely together. Thus, the first zoning resolution was adopted. You don’t need skyscrapers to have a city zoning code from which to follow. Even towns with a handful of people and one stoplight have city zoning regulations. However, it’s in the larger cities where you see a pile of ordinances crop up that are tough to enforce, mostly because of the time it takes to do the job and a lack of resources to carry out the numerous tasks. Most city zoning regulations divide the city into residential, commercial and industrial zones – all of which must be kept separate. Every city has different regulations that control how tall buildings can be, how far back a fence has to be from the sidewalk of in residential areas and what’s an acceptable amount of particulate matter in the air around the industrial zones. City workers are on the lookout for land-use regulation violations that occur when someone steps outside of the planning process and goes into uncharted, potentially illegal territory. Most municipalities and counties have different methods of enforcement, different fines and other penal codes in relation to city zoning violations. Some city zoning departments are using manual processes that really slow down the rate at which they can keep tabs on what’s going on in the community. For instance, city zoning staff has limited time in the field because of how much paperwork has to be completed back at the office. If you have the right technology, you can sidestep all the paperwork and file every report and open new cases from the field. Furthermore, with the right software up and running, zoning departments can route their employees and manage requests with greater efficiency. Working from a web interface, the software helps you streamline your routine tasks in a fraction of the time it takes using manual processes. Vendors like Comcate are working with communities on their city zoning regulations and how they can better manage all the tasks associated with them. Using handheld devices that can easily be carried with them in the field, city employees are running the software that assists them in doing their job better, faster and more efficiently than ever.