Off-Grid Living in Landaff, New Hampshire

I'll say upfront: Landaff, New Hampshire is a small town, and small towns often have thin, hard-to-find paperwork online. What I found gives a decent skeleton, but there are real gaps I couldn't fill from official sources, so I'm flagging those honestly rather than guessing.

Zoning. Landaff is zoned, it's not one of those unzoned New Hampshire towns people sometimes hope for. The town's Zoning Ordinance (originally adopted in 1977, amended through 1990, with a 2021-revised PDF posted by the town) sets up a Rural Residential district. In it, one and two family dwellings, farm dwellings, and customary accessory buildings (garages, sheds, animal housing) are permitted outright. Other uses need a special exception from the Board of Adjustment. This is a real, enforced ordinance, not just a suggestion, so if you're eyeing raw land here, pull the current zoning map and confirm your parcel's district with the town before you buy.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. This is where I'd slow down. The ordinance only clearly allows storage of one recreational trailer on a lot that already has a dwelling, it doesn't read as permission to live in an RV full-time. Manufactured housing is addressed separately in what the ordinance calls Article 9, but I didn't have that full text in front of me, so I can't tell you the specifics. If a tiny house on wheels or a manufactured home is your plan, get Article 9 and the current definitions section from the town before you commit.

Building permits. Landaff issues its own building permits, its town forms page lists a Building Permit application. New Hampshire state law (RSA 155-A) generally leaves enforcement of the state building code to towns that adopt it, and Landaff clearly has a permit process in place, so expect to apply through Town Hall.

Septic and composting toilets. This one runs mostly through the state. NH's Department of Environmental Services, Subsurface Systems Bureau, reviews and approves septic system designs statewide under its Env-Wq 1000 rules, and requires both an Approval for Construction and an Approval for Operation before a system can be used, with plans drawn up by a licensed NH septic designer. I found no Landaff-specific composting-toilet rule, so treat that as unconfirmed at the local level and ask DES or the town directly.

Greywater and rainwater. I couldn't find any Landaff-specific rule on either. That leaves both sitting on the general state baseline, which is genuinely unclear territory in New Hampshire, so I'd call this unconfirmed rather than assume you're in the clear.

Wells. Well construction and siting is licensed at the state level through New Hampshire's Water Well Board program; I didn't find any additional Landaff-specific well ordinance layered on top.

Utility disconnection. I didn't find any explicit water or sewer hookup mandate in the ordinance text I reviewed. That's encouraging for off-grid living, but absence of a rule in the excerpts I found isn't the same as a confirmed "yes," so I'd still ask the Select Board directly before you plan around it.

Bottom line: Landaff's zoning and building permit system is real and administered locally, but several off-grid specifics (manufactured housing rules, greywater, rainwater, utility disconnection) just aren't spelled out clearly in what's published online. A phone call to Town Hall will save you guesswork.