Salt Spring Island real estate buying tip on legal None conforming

Salt Spring Island real estate buying tip on legal Non-conforming. What does that mean legal non-conforming? Why would a place be non-conforming? What happens if it burns down?

Non - conforming means that the place does not conform to the area bylaws. This may have happened because the bylaws have changes. 

I was at an island place where it was zoned in the 1980 for a particular use and the development stopped for two decades and then restated as non-conforming. They can finish the development only because it had the prior approval.

If a fire burns down more than 75% of a non-conforming building it can not be rebuilt. This can make getting fire insurance a little tricky.

It is just something to know about on Salt Spring because there are lots of non-conforming places.