Locating a zoning code

The task is to find the current, adopted zoning ordinance (also called zoning code, zoning bylaw, land development code, unified development ordinance, or zoning regulations) of exactly one government, named in the bound government reference input by its Census of Governments id, name, state and county. The deliverable is the document plus a provenance record. "Current" means the consolidated text in force on the day you retrieve it, or the adopted ordinance with its amendments if no consolidation exists.

Where codes live, in the order to look

1. The government's own website (official_website in the reference input, when the Census lists one). Look for Code of Ordinances, Zoning, Planning and Zoning, Land Use, Municipal Code, Bylaws. Many towns link out to a publisher from there.
2. Code publishers. Search each by the government's name and state: Municode (library.municode.com/<state>/<name>), American Legal Publishing (codelibrary.amlegal.com), General Code eCode360 (ecode360.com, strongest in NY, NJ, PA and New England), Code Publishing / CivicPlus (codepublishing.com), Sterling Codifiers, Franklin Legal, Ordinance.com, Coded Systems, Quality Code Publishing. likely_host and likely_url in the reference input are a prior from a directory match, not a verified link.
3. A web search for "<name>" <state> zoning ordinance pdf, including the county's site (some counties host town codes) and regional planning commissions.
4. A proposed public records request to the clerk, when nothing is online. Record the office, public contact page, and draft request in an Attempt Note. Send email or make calls only with separate Campaign-owner authorization; completing this web-search task does not authorize outreach. If authorized, follow the jurisdiction's public-records process. Keep the request short: name the document, ask for a PDF or a link, give a return address. Record the date sent and the date answered. A phone call is for finding the right email address or hearing "we have no zoning"; it does not produce the document.

What to submit

Two Artifacts, roles provenance and document:

• document: the ordinance as retrieved (PDF, HTML or plain text), one file. If the code is split across chapters online, submit the zoning chapter(s) concatenated or the publisher's full-code export, and say so in notes. Do not retype or summarize; the bytes must be the source.
• provenance: a JSON record with status ordinance_found:

{
  "government": { "census_id_pid6": "100019", "name": "CITY OF PRATTVILLE", "state": "AL" },
  "status": "ordinance_found",
  "source": {
    "url": "https://library.municode.com/al/prattville/codes/code_of_ordinances",
    "publisher": "Municode",
    "method": "code_publisher",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-16",
    "document_title": "Code of Ordinances, Appendix A: Zoning",
    "current_through": "Ordinance 2026-004, adopted 2026-03-03"
  },
  "notes": "Zoning is Appendix A of the code; exported the appendix as one HTML file."
}

method is one of official_website, code_publisher, records_request_email, phone, in_person, other. For a records request, source.url may be the clerk's contact page and source.contact should hold the office and date; never paste a person's private details.

When there is no zoning ordinance

Submit status no_zoning_ordinance with at least one item in evidence, and as the document the best evidence you have (the clerk's reply as text, the statute excerpt, or the county's zoning map page saved as HTML). Acceptable evidence kinds: state_statute (townships in this state have no zoning power; cite the section), county_zoning (the county's zoning ordinance governs this territory; cite it), clerk_statement (office, date, what was said), official_website_statement (URL and quote). "I could not find it" is not evidence; it is a working Note on the Attempt, which the next solver reads.

Authority notes in the input are unverified research leads, not legal findings. Confirm exceptions and local practice. County regulation may coexist with municipal or township regulation; it does not by itself establish an absence. An old official website or a name-only publisher match may identify another government. Verify state, county, unit type, and the current adoption/amendment record.

What the checker and the reviewer look for

The checker refuses a record whose government id does not match the bound input, a text/HTML document that never mentions the government's name, a found record without a URL, date and method, or an absence record without evidence. A reviewer then confirms the document is this government's current zoning code and that the source is what the record says. For PDFs, the checker only requires a PDF header and attempts a name search in raw bytes; the reviewer must open the PDF and check its identity and contents.