Off-Grid Living in Bay County, Michigan

I'll be upfront: Bay County itself doesn't zone land. Zoning authority in Michigan sits with cities and townships under the state's Zoning Enabling Act, and that's confirmed here, Monitor Township's ordinance explicitly says it was adopted "in accordance with the provisions of Michigan Act 110 of 2006, as amended," not by the county. So the very first thing I'd tell anyone eyeing a parcel in Bay County is: find out which township or city it's in, because that local government, not the county, decides what you can build and how you can live on it.

Building permits are a mixed bag. Some townships (Fraser, Garfield, Gibson) and the City of Pinconning contract out code enforcement, while Bay City runs its own building department enforcing the state's residential code. There's no single "Bay County building code" to point to, just the statewide Michigan Building/Residential Code administered by LARA, applied locally.

Where the county does step in directly is septic and wells. The Bay County Health Department's Environmental Health Division requires a permit for any building site not served by municipal water or sewer, full stop, and that permit is non-transferable between owners. The same division handles well permits and loan evaluations, tracing back to the state's Water Well Construction Code from EGLE. Practically, this means you can't just disconnect from utilities and go fully off-grid on an occupied structure in Bay County without an approved well and septic system (or approved alternative) in place; the health code doesn't carve out an exception for that.

Dwelling type, tiny homes, and RVs are township-by-township questions. Bay Township's ordinance, for instance, bans using a basement alone as living quarters and treats relocated structures as new construction needing full permitting. Other townships may differ, so this is squarely a "call your township" situation.

Greywater and rainwater harvesting have no Bay County-specific rules that I found. Both fall back to the state plumbing code and whatever local plumbing permit process your township or city uses, so I'd treat these as generally workable but confirm specifics locally before you build a system.

Bottom line: this is a county where the health department is strict and clear about septic/well, but zoning and building enforcement are fragmented across a dozen-plus townships and cities. Don't assume anything transfers from one jurisdiction to the next inside the same county.