Off-Grid Living in Stillwater County, Montana

I've been digging into what it actually takes to live off-grid in Stillwater County, Montana, and the short version is: this is one of the more regulated rural counties in the state, because it's actually adopted countywide zoning, which many Montana counties haven't. That doesn't mean off-grid living is off the table, it just means you're dealing with both state baseline rules and a county layer on top.

Zoning. Stillwater County adopted its own Development Regulations covering unincorporated areas (excluding Columbus's extra-territorial zone and state/federal land). One nice surprise: the county says there are no setback rules for ordinary residential properties, though a 10-foot setback kicks in for conditional-use projects like multi-family, PUDs, or commercial/industrial. I'd still confirm your specific parcel's zoning district with the Planning Office before building.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The county's code treats a lot of alternative living situations (tents, cabins, yurts, RVs) under a broad "campground" definition, and RV sites can even trigger subdivision review under state law (MCA 76-3-103). I didn't find anything county-specific for tiny-homes-on-wheels, so my read is they'd default to being treated like RVs under the state baseline.

Building codes. Here's something I found genuinely helpful: Stillwater County doesn't run its own general building permit department. It explicitly tells residents to call the Montana State Building Code Bureau for code questions (electrical, plumbing, snow loads). The county's own permitting is more about coordinating things like septic and rural addressing.

Septic and composting toilets. Septic is permitted and actively administered, by the county's own Environmental Health Department, under a detailed local wastewater ordinance layered on state DEQ standards. Composting toilets aren't separately addressed in what I found, so treat that as unclear locally and default to state DEQ minimum standards.

Greywater and rainwater. No county-specific ordinance turned up for either. My best read is both fall back to Montana's state-level baseline, greywater reuse indoors is generally allowed without special permit, subsurface irrigation is more restricted, and basic rooftop rainwater collection for personal, non-potable use isn't statutorily banned.

Wells and water rights. Routine domestic well drilling runs through the state DNRC's exempt-well process, not a separate county program. Where the county does get involved is in development review: conditional-use and mineral-extraction projects have to demonstrate water/sewer adequacy or do baseline well sampling.

Utility disconnection. There's no outright ban on going off-grid that I could find, but it's genuinely unclear whether a standalone, non-subdivided off-grid home is fully exempt from utility-adequacy review, that requirement seems to mainly bite for subdivisions and conditional-use permits. Worth a direct call to Planning to confirm your situation.

Bottom line: Stillwater County is workable for off-grid living, but because it has real zoning and development regs (unlike many MT counties), you can't assume "rural Montana" defaults apply everywhere. Call before you build.