A comic about city zoning

National League of Cities announced a comic about the process of city planning and zoning in places like Boise, Idaho:

One of our biggest challenges was effective communication. Zoning codes are complex documents that rely on technical terms, making it difficult to summarize important information and avoid the “jargon trap.” We also struggled to help people visualize changes that sound abstract when described in words, like decreasing a minimum lot size.

Conventional city planning wisdom is that people tend to oppose change simply because we fear the unknown, but our experience was different: while there was plenty of disagreement about specific changes to the code, there was broad agreement that we were ready for change. People were concerned about housing affordability for future generations and excited about the possibilities of growth, such as new transportation options and neighborhood-scale businesses within walking distance of home or work.

Those shared values became an important part of the rewrite, and we did not want to lose sight of them. Technical documents are good at explaining what the rules are, but not why those rules exist. So we set out to create something that could explain the code and tell its story: an illustrated comic book as the zoning guide.

Why a Comic Book?

The narrative format of a comic book allowed us to tell the story of the zoning code and provide a context for regulations rather than simply explain them.

It’s true that comics are fun, but they are much more than that. By design, comics excel at fitting a lot of information into a limited space. Perhaps more importantly, they are not meant to be read once and “understood,” but enjoyed again and again. They are surprisingly well-suited to engaging with complex topics, because rather than oversimplifying, they allow the reader to absorb information at their own pace. For a topic like zoning, this gradual learning can be more effective than expecting someone to understand a technical document in one sitting.

As a bonus, comics stretch your investment: a single panel can later become part of a presentation, handout, classroom activity or social media post.

Of course. Obviously, the medium's been worth using for purposes like explaining the process of how to build cities and avenues for a long time, and projects like these, so long as they don't preach biased politics, can certainly come in handy. Good luck to them with marketing their look at how zoning's built.