Technology designed to help bring Henderson building code to life

Valerie Miller

Tuesday, April 4, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.

Visual interactive code

The visual interactive Development Code can be accessed at:

A new online version of the city of Henderson development code is designed to make construction projects easier for developers and residents.

The Visual Interactive Development Code, or VIC, combines the contents of the city's development code book with visual examples such as diagrams, photographs and video.

"You can help yourself instead of having to call the planning department if you have questions about development standards," Mary Kay Peck, Henderson's community development director, said.

Peck will be presenting the innovation to planners nationwide at the American Planning Association's National Planning Conference in New York this month.

The interactive code recently won the American Planning Association's state award for Outstanding Planning Tool and was nominated for the national award.

"Our Visual Interactive Code is the only fully functioning code that includes audio-video illustrations with photos and movies," Peck said. "Nobody else in the country does that."

Henderson's planners already are starting to make the transition from using the development code book to using the interactive code, she said.

"I encourage planners to use VIC, especially when they are meeting with developers," Peck said.

One of the project's major objectives is to make the development code easier to understand, not only for developers but for the average resident as well, Henderson Planning Analyst Greg Toth said.

"Most people aren't too much into reading legal or technical documents, but they will be interested in movies, pictures and sound," he said.

The city benefits, too, Toth said.

"VIC will get people more involved in the city's planning process, and it will also make the city look nicer because people can see what our design standards are and what we want the city to look like."

Movies, diagrams and audio provide easy-to-understand examples of development guidelines such as building slopes and setbacks and mechanical fencing, along with design standards such as height requirements and architectural standards. CD-ROMs with the interactive code will soon be sold by the city, Toth added.

The system was first introduced last year, after which the city of Las Vegas also introduced a visual interactive code, said Scott Majewski, a community planner with Henderson's Community Development Department.

"People tend to be more visual, so this will make it easier for people to understand the code," he said.

Valerie Miller may be reached at (702) 259-2319 or by e-mail at valerie@ lasvegassun.com