How we research

1. We collect the official documents. We download each town's zoning, shoreland, animal, fire, harbor and rental ordinances from the town's website or its official online code. We record when each document was downloaded.
2. AI-assisted extraction. An AI model reads the full ordinance text and drafts an answer to a specific homeowner question. It's instructed to use only the ordinance text, to cite the section for every rule, and to quote the ordinance word for word.
3. Automated quote checking. Every quoted passage is checked against the downloaded ordinance text by software. If a quote doesn't appear in the source exactly, the page is not published.
4. Re-checks. We periodically re-download ordinances and flag any that changed, so the affected pages can be updated.

Ordinances are amended often, and some rules depend on your specific lot (zoning district, overlays, shoreland status, subdivision covenants). Use these pages to get oriented, then confirm with your town's code enforcement officer.

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