Local governments across the country are realizing the immense value of creating a digital ordinance archive—a platform where decades of ordinances can be easily searched, accessed, and updated.
By embracing technology, municipalities can move from paper-based systems and outdated digital files to a streamlined, searchable archive that makes life easier for city officials, legal professionals, and the public.
Travis County, TX, offers an excellent case study in how enCodePlus has helped transform their records management through the creation of a digital ordinance archive.
Stay informed about emerging technology for local governments.
and be the first to know!
Why a Digital Ordinance Archive Is Crucial
Creating a digital ordinance archive is more than a matter of convenience—it’s a necessity for modern governance. Ordinances represent the legislative backbone of any city or county, but when they are stored in inaccessible formats or scattered across various platforms, it can lead to inefficiencies, miscommunication, and legal challenges. By digitizing and archiving these records, municipalities ensure that they remain organized, searchable, and accessible for years to come.
The Travis County Experience
Travis County is a forward-thinking community that recognized the importance of preserving and managing its ordinance records in a more effective way. Working with enCodePlus, Travis County embarked on a project to digitize and archive decades of historical ordinances, ensuring that the county’s legal framework was accessible to both officials and the public.
The result? A robust, user-friendly digital ordinance archive that has transformed how the county operates.
Key Benefits of a Digital Ordinance Archive:
Searchable and Interactive Data
With enCodePlus, Travis County’s ordinance archive became fully searchable and interactive. County officials can quickly find specific ordinances or amendments, view related regulations, and cross-reference other legal documents, all within a matter of seconds.
Public Accessibility and Transparency
By creating a digital ordinance archive, Travis County ensured that its citizens could easily access legal documents from any device. This level of transparency empowers residents to stay informed and engaged in the legal process, fostering a stronger connection between the government and its constituents.
Improved Efficiency and Cost Savings
Maintaining a paper-based archive is costly, time-consuming, and prone to errors. By digitizing its ordinances, Travis County has significantly reduced the time spent managing these records while also cutting costs associated with physical storage and document retrieval.
Future-Proofing the Legal Record
A digital ordinance archive not only preserves the past but also prepares municipalities for the future. Travis County’s digital archive can be easily updated with new ordinances and amendments, ensuring that the legal record remains current and well-organized for years to come.
View the Travis County, TX, archive here.
The Wrap Up
Travis County’s journey to creating a digital ordinance archive is a powerful example of how local governments can modernize their operations and improve access to critical legal records. By working with enCodePlus, Travis County has set a new standard for transparency, efficiency, and accessibility in municipal governance.
Learn how your municipality can follow in their footsteps and create a digital archive that benefits both officials and citizens alike.
Read more about Historical Archives:
- BLOG – Digitizing Historical Ordinances: Preserving the Past, Building the Future
- Webpage – Archiving
Ready to see how it works? Book a demo!
About enCodePlus – Intelligent Planning, Zoning and Codification Software
enCodePlus is a unique, web-based technology platform delivering a full suite of planning, zoning and municipal code tools and features, together with full or hybrid code management services. Created by the planning experts at Kendig Keast Collaborative, the platform serves planners and zoning administrators, clerks, attorneys, managers, economic developers, and consultant partners. The cutting-edge software streamlines the rejuvenation of the format and usefulness of plans, studies, codes and ordinances, design guidelines, standards and specifications and the processes to create and publish them.