Developers and property owners often need to work with one or more consultants to create their development plans and commonly ask city staff who they would recommend. While staff can’t recommend one consultant over another, they can do the next best thing. Staff can develop and maintain a list of professional consultants that work in the area and the services they offer. That way, developers and property owners won’t need to spend a lot of time searching for consultants who may be able to help. Most importantly, they are one step further along in the land development process.
Static or Digital
Some communities create a print version they can share when asked or post it online as a pdf. Certainly, that’s a great first step, but as with anything that’s static, they can soon become outdated. Creating a digital consultant directory helps solve that problem and that’s why we created a feature in ZoningHub to easily handle the work.
In ZoningHub, staff can set up service categories that meet their needs. Services in the sample below span all types of development activities from zoning to land divisions and more. The numbers following each indicates the number of consultants providing that service.
Sample Categories
Once the categories are set up, staff can easily add and manage consultant information, such as firm name, contact name and email, website address, and the services they provide.
Who Benefits
It’s a win-win-win.
Developers and property owners can use the directory as a starting point to find the expertise they may need to move their ideas to concrete plans and ultimately shovels in the ground.
Consultants can showcase their services.
City staff can provide a service with little effort.
Level of Effort
5-10 minutes to create the categories
5-10 minutes to add contact information for each consultant
Next Steps
If your city has a ZoningHub site, you’ve got the tools needed to create an interactive consultant directory today. And if you have any questions along the way, be sure to contact us; we’re happy to help.
For those cities still struggling to share their zoning regulations with their constituents, we’d love to give you and your team a short demo that highlights the benefits of ZoningHub.