Bannock County, ID Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

Bannock County Code Section 17.24.050(B) sits inside the performance standards that new nonresidential construction must meet in the Recreation (REC) zoning district of unincorporated Bannock County, the district the county uses for golf courses, campgrounds, ski facilities, and other tourism and outdoor-recreation development. The rule does not name a plant list; instead it directs site development to avoid unnecessary disturbance of the ground so existing native plant species already growing on the parcel are maintained, weed growth is inhibited, and dust is abated during construction.

Planning and Development Services reviews the site plan for this REC performance standard alongside the section's companion landscaping requirements: subsection (C) requires landscaped yards with full vegetative ground cover matching the dimensional standards of the residential suburban district, plus one canopy tree for every fifty feet of lot width or length used by the business, and subsection (G) adds a fifty-foot landscaped buffer, reviewed under Sections 17.52.310 and 17.52.320, wherever the nonresidential use abuts a residential use. Because the native-plant duty is a grading and disturbance limit rather than a species mandate, a developer complies by minimizing clearing and preserving what already grows on undeveloped portions of the site, not by installing a defined native seed mix.

The requirement applies only to new nonresidential construction in the REC district; it does not reach residential lots or other zoning districts in unincorporated Bannock County. General zoning enforcement under Section 17.56.030 covers noncompliance.