Since bursting onto the scene in the 1970s, the concept of “exclusion” now figures heavily in the way urban planners do their work. Now more than ever, urban planners are aware of how certain land-use regulations and forms of public process can systematically exclude certain groups of people. These are both good developments. But so far, the push toward inclusion leaves out a fundamental part of our work: the accessibility of zoning.

If a local resident or business owner with a high school diploma can’t sit down and figure out what she can and cannot do with her property in less than an hour, the zoning regime is inherently exclusionary. After all, one of the key selling points of zoning is that it supposedly provides certainty about what a property owner can and can’t do as of right. The rules shaping things like use and bulk are meant to be clear and predictable. But if zoning rules are hard to access or difficult to read and interpret, this benefit is lost, as locals will be forced to hire a land-use attorney to guide them through the process.

Needless to say, this is unnecessary and expensive, forcing low- and moderate-income households and small, local businesses to either scrap their plans or go underground. Worse yet, it ultimately advantages moneyed interests like out-of-town developers, who typically have the resources to employ full-time land-use attorneys. If that’s not exclusionary planning, what is?

It doesn’t need to be this way. Whether your town needs a full text overhaul, a new zoning handbook, or even just better graphics and charts, consider accessibility in everything that you do. Toward that end, here are four changes your town could make to immediately improve the accessibility of your zoning.