Off-Grid Living in Raymond, New Hampshire

I've been digging into what off-grid living actually looks like in Raymond, New Hampshire, and the short version is: this is a zoned town, so where you are on the map matters a lot more than in the unzoned parts of the state I've researched elsewhere.

Raymond operates under its Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 197, adopted by Town Meeting and administered day-to-day by the town's Building Department and Code Enforcement Officer/Building Inspector. The town has Residential/Agricultural districts plus overlay districts, a Conservation Overlay tied to wetland protections, and a Groundwater Conservation Overlay layered on top of the base zoning to protect wellhead areas. That overlay was adopted under the state's innovative land use control authority (RSA 674:16, II), so it's a case of the town using a state-granted tool to add local protection, not something the state mandates directly.

If you're thinking about tiny homes or RVs, know the difference matters. Camping units or tents can be occupied for up to 90 days a year anywhere in town, as long as sanitary facilities meet the Health Officer's approval. Store an RV or camper unoccupied, and that's allowed too. But a tiny house on wheels is legally an RV under state law, so it faces the same 90-day cap unless it's in a campground. If you want a permanent tiny home, put it on a foundation and run it through the standard building permit and zoning process as a single-family dwelling or attached ADU. One important local rule: detached ADUs aren't allowed in Raymond at all, only one attached ADU per parcel, and the owner has to live in either the main house or the ADU.

Building permits themselves are locally administered, not left to the state, through the Building Department under the Code Enforcement Officer/Building Inspector.

On water and waste, permanent septic systems fall under the state's DES Subsurface Systems Bureau rules, same as most of New Hampshire. The town's Health Officer gets involved specifically around sanitary facilities for temporary camping occupancy. I didn't find any Raymond-specific ordinance on greywater reuse or rainwater harvesting, positive or negative, so I'd treat those as governed by whatever state plumbing/building code baseline applies, and I'd call the Building Department directly to confirm before you install anything.

Wells are licensed at the state level through the Water Well Board, but Raymond's Groundwater Conservation Overlay adds wellhead protection requirements in mapped areas. And while going off-grid on utilities is generally fine on rural parcels with private well and septic, some zones, like areas near the Business Campus district, actually require hookup to the Town of Raymond Water Department, so full utility independence isn't guaranteed everywhere in town.

Bottom line: Raymond isn't hostile to off-grid living, but it's not a blank slate either. Check your parcel's zoning district and overlay status before you plan anything permanent.