County commissioners approved a new comprehensive growth plantwo years ago that split the county into five tiers:Urban/suburban; exurban--areas with suburban density but some ruralcharacteristics; rural--areas where lots range in size from one to20 acres and commercial opportunities are limited; agriculturalreserve--a 21,000 acre area in the southern part of the county westof the turnpike, east of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge;and the Glades tier--the western reaches of the county, containingmostly large scale agriculture.

Instead of going directly to the code-writing stage, however,the county decided to use the reverse engineering process.

"In the past, we were always amazed to see how different the endproduct was from what we expected when we wrote the codes," Dukesays. So this time, Duke's department first contracted with a localplanning and architectural firm to draw up conceptual images, usingthe guidelines outlined in the Comprehensive Plan.