Off-Grid Living in Greenville, New Hampshire

I've been digging into what off-grid life would actually look like in Greenville, New Hampshire, and the short version is: this is a zoned town, so you're working within a real ordinance, not a blank slate.

Zoning. Greenville has an adopted Zoning Ordinance, administered by the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment, with districts like Rural/Agriculture, Residential, Downtown, and Commercial-Industrial. Minimum lot sizes and setbacks vary by district and, notably, by whether your parcel sits on or off the town sewer line. There's no "off-grid exemption" tucked in there; raw land is still bound by whatever district it falls in.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The ordinance covers accessory dwelling units and references manufactured housing, but I did not find anything specific to tiny houses on wheels or living long-term in an RV. If that's your plan, I'd call the Building Inspector or Planning Board directly before you buy or bring anything in, because "not addressed" usually means it gets decided case by case.

Building permits. The town's Building Inspector & Code Enforcement office issues permits, with forms available through the Town Clerk. This is a local process layered on the state's building code framework (RSA 155-A gives municipalities that enforcement authority). Don't guess at fees or timelines, ask the Building Inspector directly.

Septic and composting toilets. Greenville's ordinance explicitly requires sewage disposal to comply with both state rules (RSA 485-A:38, enforced by NH DES's Subsurface Systems Bureau) and the town's own septic regulations. That's a real double layer, state plus local, so any composting toilet plan still needs to satisfy Greenville's own septic rules, and I'd confirm how the town treats composting systems since it's not spelled out in what I found.

Greywater and rainwater. I found no town-specific rules on greywater reuse or rainwater harvesting. That's not the same as "prohibited," it just means the town ordinance is silent on it, so the state's general plumbing and building code baseline likely applies through the local Building Inspector's permitting process. Worth a direct call to confirm before you build a system.

Wells. Private wells fall under the state's Water Well Board (RSA 482-B), and the town ordinance separately references a "safe water supply" requirement without laying out its own detailed well ordinance. So expect state licensing rules to govern the well itself.

Utility disconnection. I didn't find an outright ban on living off municipal utilities. But since the town's lot-size rules explicitly distinguish "on sewer line" from "off sewer line" parcels, going off-grid on wastewater still means you need an approved septic system, not a pass on regulation entirely.

Bottom line: Greenville isn't hostile to off-grid living, but it's not unregulated either. Every major system, building, septic, well, touches either a state statute or a town ordinance, often both, so the right first move is a phone call to the Planning Board and Building Inspector before you commit to land.