Online municipal ordinances: make the current rules easy to find
Help residents find municipal ordinances, check recent amendments and reach the right office. A website publishing guide for local government staff.
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Online municipal ordinances give residents a place to read local rules through your community's website. Make the maintained code easy to reach, show where newer amendments appear, and name the office that can answer questions. Place the code and recent-amendments links together so residents can check both before calling.
For staff, the practical goal is to send someone a reliable link to the right section. They should be able to find the same answer next time without knowing an ordinance number or asking which PDF to open.
Where should online municipal ordinances live?
Choose the maintained source for the code, then give it a clear entry point on the municipal website. That source can be searchable pages on the website or an existing outside code publisher. Avoid posting a second full copy unless someone is responsible for keeping it consistent with the maintained version.
The entry page should identify the community and offer clear routes to the code, recent amendments and staff assistance. If zoning is separate from the general code, name both destinations. Keep the same entry-page link in navigation and related service pages so staff have one address to share.
Center Line's ordinances page (opens in a new tab) explains that its code is hosted separately and that its new, uncodified ordinance list contains material not yet included there. The page tells residents why they need to check the recent list as well as the code.
Muniway's Ordinances tool supports keyword search, chapter browsing and amendment history. It can also link directly to an existing online code. Staff can keep the publishing arrangement they already use while giving residents a clearer path from the municipal website.
How will residents know about recent amendments?
Put recent amendments beside the code link, with enough information to show what each document changes. Ask the staff responsible for the ordinance record to confirm the wording and status. A file's upload date does not tell a resident when a rule was adopted or took effect.
Grosse Pointe Woods (opens in a new tab) explains that recently amended ordinances are posted before they are added to the linked code book, and directs questions to the clerk's office. Your page can make that handoff just as clear without assuming the code publisher updates immediately.
For each recent amendment, useful details include:
| Detail | Why a resident needs it |
|---|---|
| Ordinance number and descriptive title | Identifies the document without relying on a filename. |
| Chapter or section affected | Connects the amendment to the text it changes. |
| Adoption date and effective date, where confirmed | Distinguishes those events from the date the website was updated. |
| Incorporation status | Explains whether the change has been added to the displayed code. |
| Link to the approved text | Lets the reader examine the wording rather than rely on a short summary. |
Use dates and status labels confirmed from the official record. If the office has not resolved a detail, provide a contact rather than guessing.
Ray Township's page (opens in a new tab) pairs a searchable zoning-code link with a stated update schedule and lists individual ordinances and amendments. An update schedule helps set expectations, but staff should still verify whether a particular change has reached the online code.
What should happen when staff publish a change?
Make the website update part of the ordinance handoff. Name the person who supplies the approved material, the person who posts it and the person who confirms it appears correctly. In a small office, one person may handle several of those steps; the checks still need to happen.
A useful publishing sequence is:
- Receive the approved text and confirmed status from the responsible office.
- Publish the amendment in the designated location and link it from the ordinance entry page.
- Check related service instructions, such as a permit page that links to the affected section.
- Open the public links while signed out and check the title, dates and document against the supplied record.
- When the change is incorporated into the code, verify the updated section and revise the recent-amendments listing to match. Keep historical access according to the community's records procedures.
Follow the community's required legal publication process separately. This website workflow helps residents find information; staff should confirm publication requirements and effective dates with the responsible officials or counsel.
How should residents search for an ordinance?
Let residents search by a familiar subject and browse by chapter. A person asking about a fence should be able to start with "fence" even if they do not know the title of the zoning chapter. Use common questions received by the office to choose terms for testing.
Keep official section numbers and legal wording intact. Helpful topic labels and links can sit beside that text. Have any short explanation reviewed by the responsible staff, and link it to the full section so readers can check definitions and related provisions.
If the code is hosted elsewhere, test the two search systems separately. The municipal website search should at least help residents reach the code. The code search should help them find the relevant section. Ask the provider what is indexed before promising that one search covers both systems.
For PDFs that remain part of the collection, see the guide to municipal website PDF search. Searchable text and document accessibility need their own checks. Adding keywords to a filename does not resolve either task by itself.
How can staff check the resident's path?
Choose a routine question the office receives and one recently amended section. Test the first from the homepage on a phone. Then open the amendment from its public link, without using a staff bookmark or a signed-in account.
Check whether the reader can:
- Find the ordinances entry page using a subject or the word "ordinances."
- Reach the relevant chapter or section, with a way back to the full code.
- Find any newer amendment that affects the displayed text.
- Identify the office that can help with a question about the rule.
Repeat the check from a related service page, such as the permit instructions. Correct any permit-page link that still sends residents to a superseded attachment. The guide to municipal website navigation explains how to build those connections around the resident's task.
Start with the questions your staff answer most often. Fix the destination links and amendment labels for those topics first, then use the same checks whenever a change is posted.
Frequently asked questions
Can we keep our code with an outside publisher?
Yes. Muniway's Ordinances tool can link residents directly to an existing online code. Keep a clearly labeled ordinances page on your community's website so residents know where to start, where recent amendments appear and whom to contact. Check the destination after the publisher changes its website or reorganizes the code.
Does a searchable code always include the newest ordinance?
No. An adopted ordinance can still be waiting to be incorporated into the code. MSU's law library (opens in a new tab) advises checking with the clerk's office for the latest information. Place a link to recent amendments beside the code link and have the responsible staff confirm which changes are included.
Should proposed ordinances appear with the current code?
Give proposals a separate, clearly labeled location, with links from the relevant meeting or public-hearing page. A resident should be able to tell that a proposal is still under consideration before opening the file. Have the responsible staff confirm its status before changing the label or moving it into a list of adopted ordinances.
What if a resident needs help applying an ordinance to their property?
Put the responsible office's contact information beside the code link or relevant topic page. Website search can help someone find the text, but a property-specific question may need staff review. Give residents a clear route to ask about their situation, including any permit application they need, without presenting a short website summary as an individual decision.
Help residents find the ordinance they need.
See searchable chapters, amendment history and links to an existing code in Muniway's Ordinances tool.