Walla Walla County, WA Code Violation Reporting: How to Report (2026)

Community Development in unincorporated Walla Walla County enforces Title 17, the county's zoning code, and WWCC 17.60.010 sets the reporting process: any person may file a written complaint stating fully the causes and basis of the alleged violation, and it must be filed with the director of planning. The director is required to record the complaint properly, investigate it, and take action as provided elsewhere in Title 17, and the resulting record of complaint is available to the board of county commissioners and the planning commission, so a report is not a closed file once submitted.

There is no dollar fee or online portal named in this chapter; the complaint itself is the trigger for a planning department investigation into use, setback, or permit violations on unincorporated land such as Burbank, Touchet, or the county's wine-country farmland. Once a violation is confirmed, WWCC 17.60.020 makes it a misdemeanor: a violator faces a fine, imprisonment of not more than thirty days, or both, plus all costs and expenses of the case, and each day the violation continues counts as a separate offense, so an uncorrected problem compounds.

Owners, tenants, architects, builders, contractors, and agents who commit or assist in the violation can each be charged separately, and the county retains the right to seek an injunction rather than rely on the criminal penalty alone. Appeals of enforcement decisions and administrative determinations run through the hearing examiner and WWCC Title 14.11, while a separate track exists for non-zoning complaints such as debris and vegetation nuisances.