Creating sustainable, Prosperous Places through Zoning Code Reform
CodeCraft Planning Studio: Your Zoning Reform Specialist.
Is Your Zoning Code Outdated?
Trust CodeCraft to Modernize Your Zoning Code.
Trust CodeCraft to Modernize Your Zoning Code.
As an urban planning consultancy, we read a lot of zoning codes. Most codes are outdated, developed 50-60 years ago, and include regulations for obsolete land uses, such as haberdasheries or animal rendering facilities. And while those codes have been updated, they contain inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Some codes contain regulations that are in violation with current state law or case law, especially those related to signage. Other codes, still, contain remnants of an overtly racist past. Zoning administrators are frustrated; developers are frustrated; and planning commissions and boards of zoning appeals are frustrated. If this sounds a little too familiar, it may be time to consider a comprehensive zoning update.
Trust CodeCraft to Modernize Your Zoning Code.
Trust CodeCraft to Modernize Your Zoning Code.
Trust CodeCraft to Modernize Your Zoning Code.
At CodeCraft Planning Studio, we specialize in writing codes with water-tight language that thwarts law-skirters but remains accessible to the average property owner. We focus on balancing predictability with flexibility--ensuring reasonable expectations of neighboring land use behaviors while also allowing owners to take advantage of future economic investment opportunities. What exactly that perfect balance is, however, depends on your community's objectives; we write custom codes that reflect those local-specific objectives, whether your community is desiring neighborhood stability, increased affordability, environmental resilience, or economic growth.
Let Us Coach You Through the Process.
Trust CodeCraft to Modernize Your Zoning Code.
Let Us Coach You Through the Process.
We also understand that a zoning code overhaul is a once-in-a-generation endeavor. It can be exciting but also daunting! We not only specialize in writing effective codes, but we are experienced in leading professional planning staff, city leadership, and the public through a zoning code update process.
While zoning can sometimes bring up contentious topics, your community will feel confident and comfortable with our leadership--we aspire to achieve full transparency and no surprises when it comes to deliverables, project timelines, budgets, and proposed zoning map and land use policy changes.
About Us
CodeCraft Planning Studio is Nolan Nicaise.
CodeCraft Planning Studio is Nolan Nicaise.
CodeCraft Planning Studio is Nolan Nicaise.
When you hire other firms, you don't know who they're going to assign your project to. But with CodeCraft, you know exactly who's on your team: Nolan Nicaise.
I am the proud owner and founder of CodeCraft Planning Studio. I previously worked for ZoneCo, LLC, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and launched CodeCraft Planning Studio in 2026. I am a trained professional, graduating with a Masters in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University in 2014, attaining AICP certification in 2022, and building over 13 years of professional experience.
I have served numerous city and county clients to solve their unique zoning challenges: whether it's outdated land uses (e.g., haberdasheries!), confusing document organization, unfit housing regulations, illegal sign code language, or electric vehicle readiness. I'd be happy to help your community, too.
I come to each project with a broad perspective, having worked with clients across Ohio, Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia and having lived for years in Northern Kentucky, Chicago, Denver, Dayton, and the Boston area. I, too, understand the care needed to navigate city and regional politics, having served my hometown, the City of Covington, KY, on its Board of Commissioners in 2023. I am ready to use my experience to write a more effective code, educate your constituents and leadership, and set your community up to thrive over the next couple of decades.
CodeCraft Planning Studio is Nolan Nicaise.
CodeCraft Planning Studio is Nolan Nicaise.
CodeCraft's Values and AI Policy
Whether you choose to listen to the news or not, you can't avoid it--it's part of nearly every conversation these days: AI. AI's innovators say it will be the biggest technological change in human history, greater than the Industrial Revolution, greater than the internal combustion engine, greater than the Internet; that it will dramatically tax our energy grid; that perhaps 50% of white-collar jobs in the US will be rendered obsolete; that it is largely being created to achieve military superiority; and that it could yield an existential collapse of humankind.
Many other planning firms are using AI to draft proposals, zoning codes, and project memos--all while receiving revenue from clients to write data center-blocking language into their zoning codes. Frankly, I find that approach hypocritical, unethical, and anti-democratic. Your taxpayers hired a consultant, not a robot.
Here at CodeCraft Planning Studio, I am committed to avoiding the intentional use of AI in my work. Whether it's drafting this website, a zoning code audit, a project update memo, or meeting notes, I remain steadfast in my commitment to avoid AI and to promote my values of democratic governance, peace, human creativity, ethics, economic and social equity, and environmental wellbeing.
CodeCraft Planning Studio
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