what exactly does "no restrictions" mean?

[Brigitta]

I'm a little confused about this.
When I see land for sale and the listing says that there are "no restrictions", does that mean that I can put any size and type of building there?
Or does it mean that I am not limited in what I can do on the land (commercial, agricultural, residential)?
Does "no restrictions" have anything to do with getting permits?

[PEG688]

MTL means no local special codes such as height restrictions , no clothes lines , etc all the sort of "silly" restrictions put on by small communities / developments .

If permits are required in your area one , or more  , will still be required.

 G/L, PEG

[John Raabe]

The seller is probably referring to covenants. The catchall phrase to cover them all is "CCRs" = covenants, codes and restrictions. Covenants are rules put on a parcel in a development, usually by the developer (enforcement gets passed to the resident community).

You should always get a copy of these covenants and see if you can live with them. They become the expectation of the neighbors and control things like what type of siding you can have, whether you can park an RV in your driveway and how many garbage cans can be at the curb.

You most likely are still subject to jurisdictional (state and local) codes and restrictions such as building and zoning codes.
• Zoning codes cover things like what you can do on the property (home, business, farm), how much of the lot you can cover, and how tall a building you can put up.
• Building codes cover things like ceiling heights, smoke alarms, stairway width and how the place is built.

[Amanda_931]

Or whether you can have a single-wide trailer there.

[Brigitta]

Thanks people, that clears it up for me I think.