Off-Grid Living in Monterey, Massachusetts

I'll say upfront: Monterey, Massachusetts is not one of those unzoned rural towns you sometimes hear about out west. The whole town is covered by a single Agricultural-Residential zoning district under Monterey's Zoning By-law, and that by-law is administered by the town's Zoning Board of Appeals, with subdivision review handled by the Planning Board. So if you're picturing buying a raw parcel and doing whatever you like, that's not how it works here. Lots need to meet the town's minimum acreage and road frontage rules before you can put a structure on them, and the Planning Board checks this during any Form A/ANR lot review. Anything short of those minimums generally can't be built on unless it's grandfathered or gets a variance.

On dwellings: Monterey has a fairly recent Accessory Dwelling Unit bylaw update, which the Planning Board oversees. ADUs are allowed town-wide as long as they meet the dimensional table and include their own sleeping, cooking, and sanitary facilities, but they have to sit on the same lot as an existing principal dwelling, so an ADU isn't really a path to standalone off-grid living. I didn't find any Monterey-specific carve-out for tiny homes or living in an RV full-time; that's not confirmed one way or the other, so ask the Building Department directly before you commit to either approach.

Building permits run through Monterey's own Building Department, which enforces the Massachusetts state building code locally, under the building commissioner. Septic and wells are handled by the Monterey Board of Health, which enforces the state's Title 5 septic rules (a state-level requirement from MassDEP) plus its own local septic and well regulations, and it runs an online permitting system for septic construction, upgrades, perc tests, and well drilling.

Greywater and rainwater harvesting are the two grayest areas here (no pun intended). I couldn't find a Monterey bylaw addressing either one specifically, which means the state Title 5 default likely applies to greywater (treating it like wastewater requiring proper disposal), and rainwater harvesting doesn't appear to be restricted or explicitly permitted at the town level. Confirm both with the Board of Health before you build a system around them.

Living off-grid from a utilities standpoint (solar, disconnected from the electric grid) isn't banned by anything I found, but any electrical work still needs to meet state code and go through the Building Department's permitting and inspection process. Off-grid doesn't mean off-code in Monterey.

Bottom line: this is a small New England town with real, enforced zoning, active local septic and well oversight, and a Building Department that expects permits for anything structural or electrical. Talk to the town before you buy land or start building, not after.