Former Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Director Linda Finger just can’t get away from the city’s development code, the new document that spells out rules for how the community can grow.

Before resigning under pressure at the end of 2005, Finger had spent the past five years overseeing the writing of the code. Now in the private sector, Finger is offering classes to designers and engineers about how to use the document that packs about 300 pages of rules, regulations and related materials.

“There are lots of things that the professionals need to know in this code, but they need to know where to go if they are going to learn them,” Finger said.

The new code took effect July 1.

Finger recently completed a six-session class for 10 designers, engineers and architects. The classes, which were conducted at Lawrence-based Landplan Engineering, reviewed the new code section by section and compared it to the previous code that had been in place since 1966.

Finger said she had been planning on providing outreach classes on how to use the new code as part of her planning director duties.

After she left City Hall, she decided to do so as a consultant because she thought it was unlikely that the Planning Department would have time to provide the training using its own employees, who already had their hands full in the short-staffed department.

Sheila Stogsdill, the city’s acting director of planning, told Finger that she had no problem with her former boss providing the classes.

Participants in the class said the instruction was useful, although some said they were disappointed that the code wasn’t easier to use because that was one of the original goals of the new document.

“We went from a code that was 100 pages to one that is 300 pages, so I don’t think we streamlined anything,” said Allen Belot, a Lawrence architect. “There’s no real road map on how to use it.”

Finger charges about $900 for a class of 10 people. She said she would like to offer another session of classes in the future.

Finger had been working as a consultant for the city after her departure, and had worked on finalizing details on the code before it was approved this summer. Finger continues to work as a consultant for Douglas County as the government finalizes its own rural subdivision regulations, another code that Finger was overseeing before she left the Planning Department.

Otherwise, Finger has been providing consulting work to communities through the area, and providing expert opinion in legal matters.

“I’m finding out what it is like being on the other side of the process, waiting for a city to act,” Finger said. “I’ve got, like, four proposals out to various cities, and I’m just waiting for them to make a decision.”