DETROIT – February 22, 2021 – Giffels Webster, a Detroit-headquartered consulting firm specializing in infrastructure, community planning, and land development solutions for public, private and institutional clients, welcomes the City of Coldwater and the Village of Cass City as the newest communities to adopt its Clearzoning® planning tool for local zoning ordinances.
“We are excited that Giffels Webster’s Clearzoning was used to transforms zoning ordinances into user-friendly, online codes for the City of Coldwater and the Village of Cass City.” Jill Bahm, Partner at Giffels Webster, said. “Zoning codes can be confusing and intimidating, but our team was able to present these ordinances in a format that includes a clear organizational structure with more colorful illustrations and searchable words and terms.”
Giffels Webster’s Clearzoning product breathes new life into online versions of municipal zoning codes by reformatting them into a more user-friendly, understandable format with color graphics, links to key information and searchable words and terms. This makes it easier for citizens, business owners, real estate developers and public officials to quickly access important zoning information. Whether you’re a homeowner determining what is allowed on your property, or you’re an experienced developer, it can be hard to find answers to basic questions in most zoning codes. Clearzoning makes development codes clear and connected®.
The Clearzoning transformation process starts with Giffels Webster conducting a zoning audit of the municipal zoning code. Through the audit, inconsistencies between the zoning code and master plan policies, changes in regulations, new case law and industry best practices are identified. The team then identifies and fixes incorrect cross-references, duplicate language and inconsistent text.
About Giffels Webster
Giffels Webster is a collection of people — civil engineers, landscape architects, planners, surveyors and GIS specialists — who choose every day to make communities better. The Michigan-based firm helps public, private and institutional clients throughout the United States with their planning, land development and infrastructure needs.
Since its inception in 1952, Giffels Webster has evolved to offer a broad scope of services centered on helping clients achieve their project or programming goals, including civil engineering, municipal consulting, planning, land development consulting, landscape architecture, traffic engineering, surveying and GIS consulting. For more information, visit giffelswebster.com.