Off-Grid Living in Mountrail County, North Dakota

I'll be upfront: Mountrail County, North Dakota is one of those places where the answer to "can I live off-grid here?" genuinely depends on exactly which parcel you're looking at. The county has adopted a Land Development Code (under state authority, NDCC Chapter 54-21.3) that covers most unincorporated land, but a number of cities and organized townships inside the county keep their own separate zoning authority. That means before I can tell you anything useful about a specific piece of land, you (or I) need to confirm whether it falls under county zoning or a city/township's own rules.

Zoning. Assuming you're on county-zoned agricultural land, that's the default rural designation, and it's meant to preserve farming and ranching use while still allowing residential building through a permit and, in some cases, a conditional use or variance process. The Mountrail County Planning & Zoning office administers this.

Dwellings and mobile homes. I didn't find a published minimum square footage or a clean RV-as-residence rule from the county. What I did find is a specific case where the county granted a conditional use permit for a single mobile home on residentially zoned land, which tells me manufactured/mobile homes aren't automatically allowed everywhere, they may need that extra approval step. Confirm your district's rules before you buy a used trailer or tiny home hoping to just drop it on land.

Building permits. The county requires a building/demolition permit, and setbacks plus any conditional-use or variance question get sorted before that permit is issued. Final sign-off comes from the county Planning & Zoning Board, and permits expire one year from issue, so don't let paperwork sit.

Septic. Handled locally by the Upper Missouri District Health Unit (UMDHU), which issues septic (ISTS) permits good for twelve months. Statewide, a 2025 law (SB 2267) shifted licensing/inspection authority for septic installers to the state Department of Environmental Quality, though if you're installing a system on your own property for your own use, you don't need that installer license.

Greywater and rainwater. Neither is specifically addressed in anything I found from the county or UMDHU. Rainwater harvesting is legal under the state's general baseline; greywater reuse is genuinely unclear here, so I'd call UMDHU before building a system.

Wells. The county doesn't run its own well program, it refers residents to the state, the North Dakota State Water Commission for water permits and UMDHU for water quality and siting questions. Domestic/stock wells are generally exempt from full state appropriation permitting.

Off-grid utilities. I found no county mandate forcing a connection to electric or water utilities. But going off-grid for power doesn't get you out of the building permit process, setbacks, or septic requirements, those still apply regardless of whether you're tied to the grid.

Bottom line: the framework exists, but a lot of the fine detail (dwelling size, RV rules, greywater) isn't published in a way I could verify, so plan to call the county and UMDHU directly.