Off-Grid Living in Chester, New Hampshire

Chester, New Hampshire is a rural town, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's unregulated. Chester has a real zoning ordinance (most recently amended May 13, 2025 by the Town of Chester), formal zoning districts, an active Zoning Board of Adjustment, and its own Building Department that enforces a locally-adopted building code. If you're picturing off-grid land here as a legal gray zone, it isn't. It's a governed town layered on top of New Hampshire state law.

Zoning. Chester's zoning ordinance is adopted under state authority (RSA 674:16-21A), but the town writes and enforces its own districts, including floodplain and wetlands overlay zones. Raw land use and any structure you put on it falls under this ordinance, administered locally.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. I didn't find Chester-specific rules spelling out tiny homes on wheels or RVs as permanent residences. The town does have an "Age-Friendly" housing article that lets smaller homes go on larger parcels under Planning Board conditional-use approval, which shows some flexibility in principle, but it's not a green light for RV or tiny-home living. Confirm directly with Planning before assuming anything.

Building permits. Chester enforces its own building code, most recently amended in 2023, administered by the town's Building Inspector. A permit is required before you build, per the town's own ordinance text.

Septic. This one is clearly layered: New Hampshire's Department of Environmental Services (DES) has final say over septic design and approval under RSA 485-A:29, while Chester's Building Inspector shows up locally just to verify test-pit location and depth, not to judge soil or water table. Composting or alternative systems appear to route through the same state DES approval process. I did not find a separate town composting-toilet rule.

Greywater and rainwater harvesting. I found nothing specific to Chester on either topic. That means you're working off whatever the state baseline is, and it's genuinely unclear, so I'd call the town Building Department or DES directly before setting up a greywater or rain-catchment system.

Wells. Private wells are licensed at the state level under RSA 482-B. Chester's Planning Department points residents to NH DES's well-testing guidance and maintains a source water protection plan, and the town's zoning ordinance includes a groundwater protection article, so there's local overlay on top of the state well rules.

Off-grid utility disconnection. I did not find a Chester ordinance requiring hookup to water or sewer utilities, and much of the town relies on private septic anyway. But absence of a prohibition isn't the same as a documented right to go off-grid, so this one stays in "varies, ask the town" territory.

Bottom line: Chester is a real, actively-zoned town where state DES rules on septic and wells sit underneath locally enforced zoning and building codes. Nothing here is a rubber stamp, and several dimensions (tiny homes, greywater, rainwater, off-grid disconnection) simply aren't spelled out in what I could find, so a call to the Planning or Building Department is the honest next step before you buy land or start building.