Off-Grid Living in Salisbury, New Hampshire

Salisbury, New Hampshire is a small town, but don't let that fool you into thinking you can just buy a wooded lot and set up however you like. Salisbury is zoned. The town has an adopted Zoning Ordinance, administered by the Zoning Board of Adjustment, put in place under New Hampshire's statewide zoning enabling law (RSA Title LXIV). That ordinance covers permitted uses, dimensional requirements, floodplain development, and even has its own section specifically for "Private Campsites," so if you're picturing an RV or camper as your off-grid base, that section is where the town would look first.

On dwellings: Salisbury's ordinance defines manufactured housing using the state's RSA 674:31 language, and it separately regulates accessory dwelling units (ADUs). An ADU can't be a manufactured home under the ordinance's own definitions, but pre-site-built housing is allowed, it's capped at two bedrooms, and it needs a building permit issued before construction starts. Whether a tiny house on wheels counts as an RV/campsite structure or something else isn't spelled out clearly in what I could find, so I'd call the Building Department or Zoning Board before assuming either way.

Building permits themselves are required and enforced locally. Salisbury has its own Building Department and Building Inspector working under the state building code (New Hampshire delegates this authority to municipalities under RSA 155-A). Don't skip this step, since occupying a structure without a permit is one of the most common ways off-grid projects get flagged.

For septic and composting toilets, there's no Salisbury-specific ordinance that I found. This falls to the state, specifically the NH Department of Environmental Services Subsurface Systems Bureau, which handles septic design and approval statewide. Composting toilets aren't addressed in the town excerpts I have, so check directly with DES or the town about how they'd treat one.

Greywater reuse and rainwater harvesting: I found no town-specific rules on either. That likely means you're operating under general state guidance rather than a local ordinance, but I'd confirm that's still true before building a system, since town rules can change.

Wells fall under the state Water Well Board (RSA 482-B), and I didn't find a Salisbury-specific well ordinance layered on top.

As for living fully off-grid, disconnected from municipal water and sewer, I didn't find language in the ordinance that explicitly bans it. But that doesn't mean it's a free-for-all: any habitable structure still needs to clear building permit and septic approval requirements, and those alone can shape how "off-grid" you're actually allowed to be.

Bottom line: Salisbury's zoning framework is real and enforced, but a lot of the off-grid-specific questions, tiny homes on wheels, greywater, rainwater, aren't clearly answered in what's published online. Call the town before you commit to a plan.