Off-Grid Living in Dummer, New Hampshire

I'll be upfront: Dummer, New Hampshire is a small Coos County town, and the paper trail on off-grid rules here is thinner than in bigger municipalities. Here's what I could actually confirm, and where you'll need to call ahead.

Zoning is real here, even though Dummer is tiny. The town has an adopted Zoning Ordinance (amended 2024), enforced by the Board of Selectmen and Planning Board, with a Zoning Board of Adjustment handling appeals and variances. I found a documented case where the selectmen denied building permits for three new structures because they fell in a conservation overlay zone, a use the ordinance didn't allow there. That tells me Dummer has at least one overlay district with real teeth, plus other base zoning districts I couldn't fully map from what's public. Before you buy raw land here, pull the actual zoning map and district text from the town.

Tiny homes, ADUs, RVs as dwellings: I couldn't find Dummer-specific language on this. It'll come down to how the ordinance defines "dwelling," and whether there's a separate RV or camper occupancy clause. Ask the Administrative Assistant's office directly.

Building permits: New Hampshire's State Fire Marshal's Office is explicit that it doesn't have jurisdiction over local building projects except in towns with no code enforcement mechanism at all. So this falls to Dummer's own building official or code enforcement contact, reached through the town office.

Septic: This one's solidly state-level. NH Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) regulates Individual Sewage Disposal Systems statewide under its Env-Wq 1000 rules. You need a licensed NH septic designer, NHDES approval for construction, and later an approval for operation. One wrinkle worth flagging for raw land: NHDES rules require subdivision approval before septic approval on lots under a certain size that lack existing subdivision approval, so if you're eyeing a small unsubdivided parcel, check that early.

Greywater and rainwater harvesting: I found no Dummer-specific ordinance and no clear NHDES residential greywater rule in my research. Treat both as open questions and ask NHDES's Subsurface Systems Bureau directly rather than assuming either is freely permitted.

Wells: State-regulated by NHDES, and the septic application forms require documenting well location and radius relative to the septic system. No separate Dummer well ordinance turned up.

Living off-grid / disconnected from utilities: No blanket prohibition found. The one zoning dispute I located was about structure use in a conservation overlay, not about utility hookups specifically, but it's a reminder that some Dummer parcels carry extra restrictions regardless of your utility plans.

Bottom line: Dummer isn't unzoned, and it isn't hostile to off-grid living either, it's just under-documented online. Confirm district-specific rules, get the septic and well pieces cleared with NHDES, and call the town before committing to a plan.