You’re a Planning Director in Anytown, USA. Anytown is steadily growing, so your calendar is packed, as is the calendar of each member of your ten-person staff. As you catch up on emails, it feels like a typical Friday afternoon, until you see a notification that one of your planners emailed you a moment ago with the subject line: “Resignation”. This particular planner has been with Anytown for 15 years, but now they are getting the opportunity to make a higher salary in the private sector. The worst part? A few months ago, you lost a planner to retirement who had over 20 years of experience. You are now faced with the reality of needing to figure out how to replace 35 years of institutional knowledge without losing departmental effectiveness. 

Over the next several paragraphs, I will discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) applications (through use cases in Ordinal’s AI tool) can help municipalities of all sizes ensure a greater level of stability in the face of what would previously have been a crippling loss of institutional knowledge. Remember, I won’t be discussing ascension planning or anything like that, just the ways that AI can serve the needs of staff.

‍

Part 1: Training

Regardless of whether you are a seasoned planner or the new planner on the block, training or “continuing education” is an absolute necessity. The role of AI in this particular sphere is sure to increase as AI increases its ability to learn and improve its feedback and responses. AI that has been trained for a specific purpose, such as a city government's code of ordinance, is going to become more and more of an expert on that code. 

‍

With all of this in mind, AI can be used as a means of training all of your city's planners. How? By merely asking it questions. For example, if I'm a young planner with two years of experience and I'm starting a new role in the City of Willard, Missouri, I should know the types of questions that I'll be asked most frequently, as well as the types of baseline information I need to know at any given moment. Or, at the very least, I'll want to learn how to find it with relative ease.

‍

What you'll see below is that I've asked Willard, Missouri's Ordinal app “How many units per acre are allowed in residential zoning?”

‍

‍

Within a few moments, I received the response below.

‍

‍

In addition to providing a response to the question being asked, Ordinal has provided me with the references/citations within the Code of Ordinance, thus allowing me to have the ability to go directly to those codes for further study. As you can see,  AI makes it possible to train planners without needing another staff member by their side. Of course, this is not to say that AI should be your only training tool, but instead an additional tool that can free up staff in stressful times of turnover.

‍

Part 2: Increased Access to Knowledge

Libraries are important, but if you cannot access the library, it isn’t very useful. The same can be said about the information in your city’s code of ordinance, as you might have some great code, but if your staff and the general public cannot use it, it will not be effective..

‍

As you lose institutional knowledge, you are also losing access to knowledge, as seasoned planners will know the ins and outs of your city’s code book. So how do you increase access to this kind of information? AI can help.  For example, I'm a planner who has received an email from a resident of Lowell, Arkansas, asking whether or not they can build an accessory dwelling unit on their property. Below, you can see the question being posed in the Lowell, Arkansas, Ordinal app.

‍

‍

When I click “enter”, within a matter of seconds I receive the response below.

‍

‍

Much like our previous example, I get a rapid response to my question, as well as the portion of code it is derived from. I can now copy and paste the relevant portions of the response into my email back to the resident.

‍

Part 3: Consistency

How often do you find two people reading the same section of code reaching different conclusions? Or more specifically, providing different answers to the same question, based upon those differing conclusions? Lacking consistency creates immense risk for your planning department, but also your city government as a whole. At best, your department loses some credibility in the eyes of a resident. At worst, your city attorney is in court defending your department’s actions. 

‍

Everyone who has worked in the planning world has heard the dreaded phrase “arbitrary and capricious”, as a  surefire way to walk into legal issues. This phrase means there has not been reasonable consideration of facts and circumstances when making a decision.

‍

What you'll see below is the relatively simple question, “What are the setbacks of my property?” being asked in several, slightly different ways, as well as the responses provided.

‍

Question #1

‍

Response #1

‍

Question #2

‍

Response #2

‍

Question #3

‍

Response #3

‍

In each instance, what we are seeing is how AI, knowing the code and understanding the nuances of the questions, can provide similar answers and supporting documentation in references to the code of ordinance. The result? A simple way to ensure that the public is receiving quality, consistent responses, regardless of turnover.

‍

Conclusion:

You blink again and you are back at your desk in Anytown, USA. Sure, you’re disappointed to lose great members of your team, but you are happy for them as they pursue something new in life. You respond with a quick congratulatory email and get back to your Friday afternoon. In the end, you know you have the tools to train your team, access a shared knowledge base, and ensure that the information your team is learning and disseminating to the public is consistent. 

‍

And we’ve only scratched the surface of what AI can do for you.

‍

*The author of this article is not an attorney and is not intending to provide legal advice.*