Off-Grid Living in Tisbury, Massachusetts

Tisbury is a small town on Martha's Vineyard, and like the rest of the island, it's fully zoned, not a spot where you can just buy raw land and do as you please. If you're dreaming of off-grid life here, you need to understand this is a place with active town government, a Board of Health that takes wastewater seriously (there's no local septage treatment plant on-island), and a Building Department that enforces the Massachusetts state building code.

Zoning. The Tisbury Zoning By-Law (current as of April 2025) sets up districts like the Coastal District, Tisbury Island Road District, Waterfront Commercial District, and an aquifer protection area (R3A). The Planning Board acts as the Special Permit Granting Authority, and the Zoning Board of Appeals handles variances. What you can and can't do with a parcel depends heavily on which district it sits in, so pull the bylaw text for your specific lot before assuming anything.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. I could not confirm any Tisbury-specific tiny-house exemption or RV-as-permanent-dwelling allowance. Massachusetts has adopted Appendix Q of the IRC statewide, which can make small dwellings easier to permit, but whether Tisbury applies stricter minimums locally isn't confirmed in what I found. Call the Building and Zoning Inspector before you plan around a tiny home.

Building permits. The Building and Zoning Inspector's office at 51 Spring St. in Vineyard Haven handles permits and enforces the state building code. Nothing suggests Tisbury skips standard permitting for any structure you intend to live in.

Septic and composting toilets. This is the big one. Tisbury's Board of Health enforces Title 5 (the state's septic code, 310 CMR 15.000) and also runs local wastewater rules. Because Tisbury has no septage treatment facility, effluent has to be trucked off-island, a real cost and logistics factor. The Board of Health typically limits bedroom count based on what septic system a lot can support, and some properties fall inside the municipal Wastewater Treatment Facility's sewer service area, where connection to town sewer may be required instead of a private system. Composting toilets aren't separately addressed in what I found, so ask the Board of Health directly.

Greywater. No town-specific greywater bylaw turned up. The state Title 5 baseline treats greywater as wastewater requiring proper treatment, and Tisbury's Board of Health enforces that.

Rainwater harvesting. No town rule found either way, so I'd call this unclear and worth a direct question to the Board of Health or Building Department.

Wells. Private wells are generally permitted, with the Board of Health overseeing siting and construction as part of its state-delegated public health role. No Tisbury-specific well ordinance text was found, so confirm particulars locally.

Utility disconnection. No Tisbury bylaw specifically bans going off-grid electrically. Standard building and electrical permitting through the Building and Zoning Inspector still applies.

Bottom line: nothing here is a flat "no," but almost everything is gated by permits, district rules, and the Board of Health's septic authority, so plan on making some phone calls before you buy land.