Off-Grid Living in Chebeague Island, Maine

Chebeague Island, an island town in Casco Bay, Maine, is fully zoned, so anyone thinking about off-grid living here needs to plan around real permitting, not just buy land and build. I pulled this together from the town's own code and ordinance pages, so treat it as a starting map, not a legal opinion, and confirm specifics with the town before you commit to a piece of land.

Zoning and land use. The Town of Chebeague Island administers its own Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 17 of the Town Code), plus a separate Shoreland Zoning Ordinance, a Growth Management Ordinance, and a Floodplain Management Ordinance. There are established districts (like "IR" and "IB") with their own dimensional standards, and where the general zoning ordinance and shoreland zoning conflict, the stricter rule wins. Raw land can't just be occupied; it goes through the Planning Board or Code Enforcement Officer for review.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. I didn't find a specific town provision addressing tiny houses or RVs as permanent dwellings. That's a gap in the public ordinance text I could find, not a green light, so I'd call the Code Enforcement Officer directly before assuming an RV or tiny home qualifies as a legal residence.

Building codes. The town has adopted the Maine Model Building Code (which incorporates the IRC and IBC), the 2006 NFPA Life Safety Code, and the 2005 National Electrical Code / ANSI C2 standard. The Code Enforcement Officer issues permits and inspects for building, fire, electrical, plumbing, and property maintenance compliance, plus wastewater disposal. This is a real, locally enforced building code regime, inherited from the state model codes but administered by the town.

Septic and greywater. Subsurface wastewater systems need a permit through the town's online portal, under Wastewater Disposal Regulations adopted locally, but enforced by a Code Enforcement Officer who must be certified as a Local Plumbing Inspector under Maine's statewide Subsurface Wastewater Disposal Rules. I found no separate town ordinance on greywater reuse, so that falls back to the state's baseline rules, administered locally by the same officer.

Rainwater and wells. I found nothing in the town's ordinances specifically addressing rainwater catchment, so treat that as unconfirmed and worth a direct call. Wells aren't separately regulated by the town either, as far as I could find; that's state Water Well Commission territory, with the town handling internal plumbing permits for hookups.

Off-grid utility disconnection. There's no standalone ordinance saying you can or can't live off-grid. Instead, it's governed indirectly: any occupied dwelling, connected to utilities or not, still has to satisfy the building, electrical, plumbing, and wastewater permitting the Code Enforcement Officer administers.

Bottom line: Chebeague Island isn't hostile to off-grid living, but it's a genuinely regulated island town, and the permitting runs through the Code Enforcement Officer's office for almost everything, so that's your first call.