enCodePlus

08/13/2026

The City of Montgomery, Ohio Government has a beautiful new online home for its Code of Ordinances.

The new site gives residents, businesses, visitors, and staff easy access to the laws and regulations that govern the community.

Plus, users find easy access to archives, an ordinance search tool, and resources like other City documents.

Explore the new Code: https://na2.hubs.ly/H07b0cF0

08/11/2026

While AI can help organize information, it takes the discernment of a planner to understand and protect community values.

In a new American Planning Association Planning magazine article, enCodePlus founder Bret C. Keast, AICP, shares what we have learned from testing AI against real planning and development workflows.

When municipal documents are structured correctly, they can become the foundation of a regulatory infrastructure that connects plans, codes, maps, standards, procedures, and institutional knowledge. Built on governed, curated sources, AI can deliver more reliable answers with citations and traceability without displacing the professional judgment planners provide.

We can allow AI to do the grunt work while leaving authority with planning professionals.

Thank you to the American Planning Association for sharing Bret’s perspective. Read the full article below. https://na2.hubs.ly/H0764vk0

New tools may help organize and apply planning information, but local context, public trust, and professional judgment remain essential.

07/29/2026

Congratulations to the City of San Diego!

Travel + Leisure recently recognized San Diego as home to the best coastline in the United States. It's a fitting honor for a city known for its beaches, parks, neighborhoods, and waterfront.

We're proud that San Diego trusts enCodePlus to help make its regulations easier to access and navigate online. Congratulations to everyone who helps make this remarkable city such a special place to live, work, and visit.

https://na2.hubs.ly/H06Xzgy0

A new ranking highlights San Diego’s surf towns, dramatic sea cliffs, protected coves, and family-friendly shores.

07/21/2026

Congratulations to Sampson County Government in North Carolina on their newly launched Code of Ordinances portal!

The new site makes it easy to search the County's regulations, browse archived versions, access GIS maps, and use quick-reference tables—all from one place. It's a practical resource built to help people find answers faster.

Take a look:
https://na2.hubs.ly/H06NBvL0

06/30/2026

Once you've established what an AI system should be allowed to do, the next question is just as important:

Where is it getting its information?

If the system is drawing from internet search results, mixed datasets, or content from outside your jurisdiction, you have no control over the answer.

For planning and zoning, that is a deal-breaker.

Planning-grade AI is different.

It works from the sources your community has adopted and approved—your ordinances, plans, standards, procedures, and other governing documents.

That improves accuracy, preserves consistency, and makes answers traceable.

Plus, it ensures that staff and the public are looking at the same authoritative information.

The quality of an AI response will always depend on the quality and the authority of the information behind it.

Full breakdown:
https://na2.hubs.ly/H06lXjV0

06/23/2026

As communities start to look at AI, the initial questions are pretty straightforward.

What can it do?
How fast is it?
Is it accurate?

All fair questions, but...

Planning and zoning require a unique understanding and weaving of context. They sit inside adopted regulations, established procedures, public records rules, and clearly defined authority. Any AI system brought into that space must fit within those same constraints.

Yes, the AI model must be smart, but reliable functionality is more about how the system is set up and managed.

Where the information comes from.
What the system is allowed to do.
Whether you can trace an answer back to its source.
Whether it can be reviewed later.
How it fits into records requirements.

That’s really the difference between a general-purpose AI tool and something that can actually work in a planning context.

06/23/2026

Client feedback like this says a lot.

We’re grateful to support City of Basehor, KS with tools that make local information easier to find, manage, and share.

Thank you, Kathy, for the kind words!

06/18/2026

Poor document practices have been creating friction all along. The introduction of AI just makes it easier to see.

❌Broken references.
❌Flattened tables.
❌Inconsistent numbering.
❌Outdated PDFs.
❌Disconnected maps.
❌Unclear source authority.

Experienced human staff have the mental dexterity to navigate these problems, but digital systems work only from what is structured, current, connected, and available.

If planning documents are messy, AI just makes it worse.

Read our latest article, linked in the first comment.

06/16/2026

AI readiness is not a one-time cleanup project.

Planning documents are always evolving:

➡️Ordinances are amended.
➡️Maps are updated.
➡️Standards are revised.
➡️Plans are adopted.
➡️Procedures evolve.

If those changes are not incorporated consistently, the system works from whatever it thinks is current.

A human may remember what changed, but a digital system only knows what has been maintained.

That is why document governance is so important.

06/11/2026

Zoning text and GIS layers have to stay aligned.

If the ordinance uses one district name, the zoning map uses another label, and overlays are maintained somewhere else, the system inherits the same ambiguity. Staff can manage ambiguity with discernment, but AI cannot.

For planning and zoning, maps are not just visuals. They carry regulatory context.

District names, overlay boundaries, parcel data, and adopted text all need to correspond.

Otherwise, even a well-designed system may surface the conflict but not resolve it.