Off-Grid Living in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri

I'll be straight with you: researching Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri turned up a lot less than I usually find at the county level, and that gap itself is useful information.

Zoning. I could not find an official Ste. Genevieve County zoning ordinance or planning department page. That's not unusual in Missouri, under Chapter 89 RSMo, second- and third-class counties need voter approval to adopt planning and zoning, and many rural counties never have. The City of Ste. Genevieve, by contrast, has a full zoning code with ten districts, but that only governs land inside city limits. If your land is out in the unincorporated county, I'd call the County Commission directly to confirm there's truly no zoning overlay before you assume anything.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The city has actually created a "Tiny Home Overlay" district letting tiny homes sit on smaller-than-normal lots, but that's a city-limits program. I found nothing on file for the unincorporated county addressing minimum dwelling size or living in an RV long-term, so treat that as unclear until the County Commission tells you otherwise.

Building permits. Missouri has no statewide building code, so whether unincorporated Ste. Genevieve County requires permits at all depends entirely on whether the county separately adopted one, and I found no evidence it has. The City of Ste. Genevieve, again only inside city limits, has adopted IRC-based building code provisions and ties occupancy permits to water/sewer hookup.

Septic and greywater. No county health department page on septic or composting toilet permitting turned up in my search. Missouri's DHSS or a local health agency handles onsite sewage in roughly half the state's counties, so it's genuinely unclear whether Ste. Genevieve County has its own health authority for this or defers to DHSS. Greywater reuse rules are equally unconfirmed locally.

Rainwater and wells. I found no county or city rule blocking rainwater collection, so the Missouri state baseline (generally permissive) should apply. Wells fall under Missouri DNR's statewide well construction rules; no additional county-level well ordinance was found.

Utilities. Nothing requires unincorporated landowners to hook up to utilities, as far as I can confirm. Inside the city, though, water and sewer service can't be turned on without an occupancy permit on file, so that's a real gate if you're within city limits.

Bottom line on research honesty: a lot of what governs unincorporated Ste. Genevieve County is what's absent rather than confirmed. Don't take that as a green light, call the County Commission and ask directly who handles zoning, building, and septic before you build or move onto land there.