Two years ago when the drought in Utah was really bad, some guy got in trouble becasue he was trying to do something like set up a rock garden/xeriscaped front yard, and it didn't have enough green stuff in it for the city ordinance.
Funny how in the middle of a dry place everybody has to have a green grassy lawn.
I wrote a letter to my city water district when I moved here that protested the use of "penalties" when you go over a baseline of water usage. The city eventually changed the wording. What bothers me is that some Nazi might turn me in for watering the dirt off the cement. Some cities prohibit washing down the pavement. The whole thing stems from the idea that people are not wise enough to monitor the usage of natural resources. So the busybodies in local politics use punishments to make stupid citizens behave correctly. Just one more step toward totalitarianism.