Noncompliance refers to not following local land use codes. Noncompliant use of land is illegal and can cost a lot of money in the long run.
Landowners do not have the absolute right to do anything they want on their property. For instance, they do not have the right to do things on their property that will harm their neighbors or the public. In rural zoning, things like wedding venues, schools, and dog kennels require a conditional use permit. This is because rural roads and infrastructure are not designed to support high-traffic, high-noise uses. Even things like building setbacks are designed to prevent harm — if snow falls off your neighbor’s roof onto your fence, breaks the fence, and your herd of cows escape and become lost in the winter woods, your neighbor has caused you harm. This is true even if the setback rule didn’t make sense to them at the time, and they decided to ignore it in the name of “property rights.”
Case Study
A fictional person known as George receives a building location permit in February 2026 for what he describes as a “barn for agricultural purposes.” The building is constructed, along with elaborate landscaping and a large parking area. George’s neighbors begin to suspect that he has not been honest about the purpose of the building, and conclude that he seems to be creating an event center that would potentially attract hundreds of attendees, creating traffic and maintenance issues on their gravel road, as well as light and noise pollution that will disrupt their sleep. The neighbors know that an event center would not in compliance with their rural zoning.
Additionally, to prepare the building site, George drains and fills a pond, and discharges the runoff into Lake Pend Oreille. The neighbors suspect that this violates the Clean Water Act, section 404, and reach out to the regional office for the US Army Corps of Engineers regulatory division to report a possible violation.
The Corps indicates that they did not issue a permit to drain the pond and discharge the water into Lake Pend Oreille. The neighbors also fill out a county complaint form and email it to the Bonner County Planning Department. They additionally contact the water division of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, who direct them back to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Who enforces violations?
In theory, both the jurisdiction (such as the county) and larger regulatory bodies such as the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the EPA, have the power to enforce violations. They can do this by requiring landowners to stop illegal building and restore the property to its former state, for example. In practice, various agencies often defer to one another, or have backlogs of complaints to address. Unscrupulous developers and neighbors may try to take advantage of this by assuming they can get away with not taking the legal route to land use choices. However, this rarely turns out to be the fiscally responsible move, for many reasons. As long as they are violating code, they will likely lose any lawsuit brought against them, and in small towns and rural areas, annoying the neighbors isn’t good policy.
Is noncompliant the same as nonconforming?
Not at all. Nonconforming land use refers to land use that is legal, and is grandfathered in even though it is atypical. For example, a small parcel that was created prior to current lot size rules would be nonconforming. By contrast, noncompliant land use is illegal.