Off-Grid Living in Posey County, Indiana

I've been digging into what off-grid life actually looks like in Posey County, Indiana, and here's my honest read after going through the county's own pages.

Zoning. Posey County runs a joint zoning ordinance covering the unincorporated county plus the Towns of Poseyville and Cynthiana (Mount Vernon and other incorporated towns handle their own zoning separately, so where exactly you're buying matters a lot). The county's Area Plan Commission administers this, and if you're planning to build, subdivide, place a mobile home, or run a business, you'll need to talk to them and get a Land Use Permit, which requires a legal description and plot plan. Worth knowing: the county is currently drafting a new Unified Development Ordinance to replace the current one, so rules could shift.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. I couldn't confirm specific minimum-size rules for tiny homes or permanent RV occupancy standards in the county's official materials. The Land Use Permit process clearly applies to mobile home placement, but beyond that, this is something you'd need to confirm directly with the Area Plan Commission.

Building permits. The county's Building Commissioner issues construction permits for everything outside the city/town limits of Mt. Vernon, New Harmony, Poseyville, and Griffin. They enforce plumbing, electrical, mechanical, and structural codes, and applications need a site plan and construction plans with cross-section details.

Septic. This is handled by the Posey County Health Department, not the Building Department, and any dwelling not on public sewer needs sewage disposal approval there before you cover the system. This implements Indiana's statewide onsite sewage rule (410 IAC 6-8.3). Composting toilets aren't specifically addressed in county materials I found, so I'd ask the Health Department directly if that's your plan.

Greywater and rainwater. I found no Posey County-specific ordinance on either. Both appear to fall back to the state baseline, meaning greywater likely gets treated as sewage under state onsite system rules, and rainwater harvesting doesn't appear to be restricted, but neither is spelled out at the county level.

Wells. Domestic wells are regulated at the state level by the Indiana DNR, not the county, and generally don't need a permit unless you're in the Great Lakes Basin or qualify as a significant water withdrawal facility. Well drillers do file a record for every well drilled.

Utilities. I didn't find any county ordinance requiring hookup to electric, water, or sewer. The Posey County Regional Sewer District is expanding service to some areas, but that's infrastructure planning, not a mandatory-connection law that I could confirm.

Bottom line: Posey County gives you more zoning structure than some rural Indiana counties, but the gaps (tiny homes, greywater, rainwater) mean you'll want to call ahead rather than assume.