Off-Grid Living in Arenac County, Michigan

I've been digging into Arenac County, Michigan for readers thinking about going off-grid there, and the first thing to understand is that Arenac County has no countywide zoning ordinance. Land use control is handled township by township (Turner, Whitney, Deep River, Clayton, and others each have their own zoning ordinance under the state's Michigan Zoning Enabling Act). That means the rules on your specific parcel depend entirely on which township it sits in, and you need to call that township's zoning administrator before you buy or build.

On dwellings, townships generally define "dwelling" narrowly. Whitney Township's ordinance, for instance, explicitly says a motor home, trailer, or portable building doesn't count as a dwelling. Manufactured homes have their own rules too. Deep River Township requires them to meet minimum lot size, setbacks, a minimum floor area, and to sit on an approved permanent foundation, anchored per state manufactured housing standards. So a bare-bones tiny house or RV as a permanent residence is going to run into trouble in most townships here.

Building permits are handled at the county level by the Arenac County Building Department, under the state's Stille-DeRossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act. But you still need a separate zoning/land-use permit from your township, and the county will ask for proof of an approved septic and well (or existing system evaluation) from the Central Michigan District Health Department (CMDHD) before issuing a building permit.

Septic and wells both go through CMDHD, not the county directly. A sanitarian evaluates your site for separation distances from wells, surface water, and property lines, and you need a reserve area set aside for a future drainfield replacement. I didn't find anything from CMDHD or the county specifically authorizing composting toilets as a septic alternative, so that's genuinely unclear, ask CMDHD directly. Some townships go further: Deep River Township's ordinance bans outhouses entirely except in designated parks or as temporary portable toilets.

Greywater reuse and rainwater harvesting don't have county-specific rules that I could find; they'd presumably fall back on the state plumbing code baseline administered by Michigan's LARA department, but confirm with the county building department before you build a system around that assumption.

For wells, CMDHD again is the permitting authority, following the state Water Well Construction Code, and you have to flag the proposed well location before the sanitarian visits. If you're planning a higher-capacity irrigation well (75 gallons/minute or more), that also has to be registered with the state's EGLE water withdrawal tool.

Bottom line on full utility disconnection: no outright county ban that I found, but between township rules requiring water/sewer to meet health department standards and the building permit's requirement for an approved septic and well, going fully off the grid without an approved system in place isn't realistic here.