Off-Grid Living in Standish, Maine

I've been digging through Standish, Maine's ordinances and the state rules that sit underneath them, and here's the honest picture for anyone thinking about off-grid living there.

First thing to get straight: Standish is a zoned town. Zoning is set locally under the Town's Chapter 181 Land Use Ordinance, enforced by the Code Enforcement Officer (not the Planning Board, which handles policy and applications rather than day-to-day enforcement). The town is carved into multiple districts, including some Form-Based Code Village Districts around Standish Corner and Sebago Lake Village, each with its own lot size, frontage, and use rules, plus shoreland zoning overlays near water. What you can do with raw or vacant land depends entirely on which district it falls in, so I can't give a blanket answer, you'd need to check the zoning map and Article III district rules for a specific parcel.

On dwellings: I could not confirm a specific town or state category for tiny homes or RVs as permanent, year-round dwellings. The ordinance does define "accessory dwelling units" with standards and requires Code Enforcement Officer approval for those. Whether an RV or tiny home would be treated as a legal permanent dwelling looks like a case-by-case call by the CEO, not something spelled out clearly in the code I found.

Building permits are required and administered locally by the Code Enforcement Officer, who reviews for Maine's state building code (MUBEC) plus town-specific rules covering things like fences, blasting, and gravel extraction.

Septic and greywater systems fall under Maine's state Subsurface Wastewater Disposal Rules, administered locally through Standish's Local Plumbing Inspector (LPI), who is typically housed within the Code Enforcement office. You'll generally need a licensed site evaluator's design and an LPI permit, though replacement tanks and some alternative toilets have exemptions from the site-evaluator requirement.

Rainwater harvesting: I found nothing in Standish ordinances or state rules that specifically addresses cisterns or rain catchment. That's a gap in what's publicly documented, not a green light or a ban, so ask the Code Enforcement office directly if your setup involves plumbing tie-ins.

Private wells follow state siting and construction standards; no Standish-specific well ordinance turned up beyond the interaction with the state's setback rules from septic systems.

Living fully off-grid (disconnected from municipal utilities) isn't explicitly banned in anything I found, but it's practically gated: any habitable structure needs CEO building sign-off, and if you're not on sewer, you need LPI septic approval before occupancy. Confirm specifics before you buy or build.