From: rkay@ausom.oz.au (Richard Kay)
Newsgroups: alt.planning.urban
Subject: Town Planning Software Question
Date: 25 Jul 92 10:05:45 GMT
Organization: AUSOM - The Apple Users Society of Melbourne

Background:

Down here in Australia the use and development of land is governed by
statutory planning controls - generally at the Local Government level.
Typically these controls are in the form of Planning Schemes which are
comprised of a written document known as the "Ordinance" and the
"Plan/s".

The framework of the Ordinance is fairly standard except for such
variables as lot sizes, building setbacks,the range of uses allowed in
particular zones etc. etc.

The Problem:

The organisation I work for is periodically required to update one of
approximately thirty such documents, each of up to 100 pages in
length. The documents are composed from a large number of standardised
clauses, each one of which may or may not be included in any given
document. The clauses are arranged in a numbered hierarchy within the
document and contain many cross-references.

Presently, when a change (such as adding or removing a clause) is made
to a document, considerable effort is expended updating
cross-references to maintain the consistency of the document. It costs
my organisation between $5,000 and $6,000 each time a document must be
updated, and this typically occurs twice a year.

A more efficient means of creating and maintaining the above
documents is required.

A Possible Solution:

One solution currently being investigated is the use of custom written
computer software which will provide an interactive, user-friendly
application to enable Local Government Authorities to write their own
Planning Scheme Ordinances and allow us to update them easily when changes
are made.

The software would allow my organisation to compose and maintain a
master list of all the clauses which may occur in any of the
documents. The clauses would be arranged in the master list in the
hierarchy in which they will occur in the finished documents.

The software would also enable the style and format of different
clauses to be specified, and would allow cross-references between
clauses in the master list to be created and removed. Furthermore,
relationships between clauses may be defined where two clauses are
recorded as being mutually exclusive, or two clauses are recorded as
being dependent on both being present.

Having created a master list of clauses, and their styles and
relationships, it would be possible to create a number of customised
documents simply by specifying which of the clauses from the master
list are to be included in each. The software would use the rules
established in the master list to automatically check the consistency
of the document so produced. The clauses included in the finished
document, and all cross-references, would be renumbered and formatted
automatically, and the finished document printed.

The software would keep with the master list the descriptions of all
the finished documents compiled from it. In addition to the above
functions it would be possible to list the differences between any two
documents, or between a document and the master list, making the task
of maintaining many such documents very easy.

The Question:

Has anyone else run into this problem and found a solution?

What we are talking about is a combined word processor, outliner and
database that is, to some extent, programmable.

The computer platform we are looking at is the Apple Macintosh because
it is user friendly and should be fairly easy for non-computer types
to get the hang of fairly easily.

Any comments, suggestions or advice would be appreciated.



-- 
| Richard Kay          | Telephone: (003) 36-2801      +61 03 362801 |
| PO Box 1567          | Facsimile: (003) 36-2873      +61 03 362873 |
| Launceston  Tasmania | Internet: rkay%ausom.oz@sol.cc.deakin.oz.au |
| Australia       7250 | BE REALISTIC.............PLAN FOR A MIRACLE!|
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