Off-Grid Living in Queen Anne's County, Maryland

If you're looking at raw land in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, the first thing to understand is that this county, unlike a handful of rural Maryland counties, has adopted countywide zoning. There's no "no-zoning" pocket to find here. The Department of Planning and Zoning administers a comprehensive Zoning and Subdivision Code (Chapter 18:1) across the entire county, so wherever you buy, you'll be working within some zoning district's rules on density, use, and lot standards.

On dwellings: I found the code addresses manufactured/mobile homes specifically, and treats them restrictively, generally only allowing a single-wide as a replacement for an existing legal unit or as temporary shelter under conditions. I did not find anything in the county code addressing tiny homes on wheels or long-term RV living as a permanent dwelling, so that's genuinely unclear from official sources. Confirm directly with Planning and Zoning before you plan around a THOW or RV.

Building permits are required by the county for new construction and most alteration or repair work on residential structures. Queen Anne's County has adopted the Maryland Building Performance Standards (the state-level baseline under COMAR, incorporating the IBC and IRC) with its own local amendments layered on. Farm buildings get a narrow exemption from the construction code itself, but the owner still needs electrical and plumbing permits, so don't assume "farm building" means "no permits."

Septic is handled by the county Health Department's Environmental Health division, operating under state (MDE) delegation. You need a written permit before building a private wastewater system, and existing systems face a required pump-out schedule. I found no county-specific composting toilet ordinance, so that inherits the more restrictive state posture where composting toilets generally aren't treated as a substitute for a permitted septic system.

Greywater and rainwater harvesting both appear to simply defer to state rules; I found no county ordinance expanding or restricting either one specifically. Rainwater harvesting looks favorable in principle, since the county's stormwater program treats it as a good best-management practice, but that's not an explicit county rule, just an inference.

Wells are permitted and inspected through the same Health Department Water Program. Worth noting: if public sewer becomes available to a property on a private septic system, the code requires connecting within a set window and decommissioning the septic system, and there's language suggesting a parallel expectation could apply to wells once county water is extended to an area. If you're near a Sanitary District boundary, ask about this directly.

Living fully off-grid (no utility hookups) isn't addressed as its own category anywhere I found. It's governed indirectly: your building permit still needs sign-off from the Health Officer on water/septic and from Building Code officials on occupancy standards, whether or not you're tied to the electric grid or public utilities. Off-grid solar generation itself isn't separately restricted in anything I found.

Bottom line: zoning and building permitting are firmly in place countywide, several pieces (tiny homes on wheels, composting toilets, greywater specifics, full utility disconnection) are not spelled out and need a direct call to the county.