Off-Grid Living in Mercer County, North Dakota

I've spent a while digging through Mercer County, North Dakota's public documents, and the honest headline is this: the county has real zoning and real permitting, but a lot of the specific off-grid questions (dwelling size, greywater, utility disconnection) just aren't spelled out anywhere I could find. I'll walk through what I did and didn't find, and be upfront about the gaps.

Mercer County runs countywide zoning through its Planning & Zoning Commission, but that ordinance is actively being revised right now, with draft chapters on industrial use, solar energy, wind energy, and sand/gravel headed to the County Commission for first reading. That matters for off-gridders because a Solar Energy Ordinance and Wind Energy Ordinance are literally in the pipeline, meaning today's rules on home renewable systems could shift. On raw land, the county's existing sewage disposal provisions (Chapter Four) set a two-acre minimum lot for non-agricultural uses relying on a private soil absorption system, which functions as a de facto minimum for building outside city/town limits.

Here's the catch, though: 63% of the 48 municipalities and townships in Mercer County have their own zoning ordinances that override the county's rules inside their boundaries. So before you assume county rules apply to a parcel, you need to confirm with the local township or city, or with the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission (MCRPC), whether that spot has its own zoning.

Building permits go through the county's Land Use Administrator, and a separate sewage disposal permit is required before installing an onsite system tied to construction. Septic systems are permitted county-wide but with real siting rules I did find in writing: no soil absorption system within ten feet of a dwelling, one hundred feet of a private well, or two hundred feet of a public water supply, stream, lake, or reservoir. Installers also need a state license under North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality rules, plus a permit from the local public health unit.

Wells are permitted, and the county has its own Water Resource Board that works alongside state authorities on testing and approval.

Where I came up empty: I found no Mercer County or state rule addressing residential greywater reuse specifically, no rainwater harvesting restriction (which likely means it inherits the general absence of prohibition, but nothing county-specific confirms that), no dwelling minimum-square-footage or RV occupancy standard at the county level, and no explicit requirement to hook up to grid utilities. All of these are things I'd call the county's Land Use Administrator or your specific township about before you build.

Bottom line: this is a county where the paperwork exists and gets enforced (permits, setbacks, soil testing), but many off-grid specifics are either township-dependent or simply undrafted yet. Don't guess, call ahead.