Off-Grid Living in Stratham, New Hampshire

I've been digging into what it would actually take to live off-grid in Stratham, New Hampshire, and the short version is: Stratham is a zoned town, not open countryside, so anything you do with raw land or a dwelling runs through the town's Planning & Zoning Department and Building Inspector, layered on top of New Hampshire state rules.

Zoning. Stratham has a mapped Zoning Ordinance (last amended in 2025) with multiple districts, including a mandatory form-based zoning district with three sub-zones, each with its own rules on what you can build and how. What's allowed on a given parcel, including whether you can simply occupy raw land, depends entirely on which district and sub-zone your land sits in. That's a question for the Planning & Zoning Department, not a blanket town-wide answer.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The ordinance clearly addresses Accessory Dwelling Units, allowing a second living unit attached to or inside an accessory structure on a single-family lot, under Stratham's ADU standards. I did not find specific town language on tiny homes on wheels or long-term RV living as a primary residence. That's a gap in the public documents I could find, so I'd treat it as unclear and call the Building Department directly before assuming either is allowed.

Building permits. The town's own ordinance (its permit rule, administered by the Building Inspector) says you need a permit before erecting or altering any building or structure, full stop. There's a carve-out for agricultural buildings with no public use, which follow the state's Group U agricultural exemption. Otherwise, expect the local Building Inspector to be your gatekeeper.

Septic and composting toilets. Any septic system installation, replacement, or expansion needs written approval from the state, NH DES's Subsurface Systems Bureau, with plans often routed through the town as well. Any structure hooked to a water supply must also have a wastewater disposal system. I found no Stratham-specific composting-toilet exemption, so if you're hoping to skip conventional septic entirely, that needs a direct conversation with DES and the town.

Greywater and rainwater. I couldn't find any Stratham-specific ordinance on either, which means you're likely operating under general New Hampshire plumbing and building code baselines rather than a dedicated local rule. Worth confirming with the Building Department since code enforcement runs through them.

Wells. No town-specific well ordinance turned up beyond the state's water well rules, but again, any well feeding a plumbed structure triggers the wastewater-disposal requirement above.

Off-grid utility living. Nothing in what I found explicitly bans disconnecting from municipal utilities, but the building-permit and septic requirements above functionally shape what a legal off-grid home can look like here.

Bottom line: Stratham isn't hostile to off-grid living, but it's not a free-for-all either. Zoning district, building permits, and state septic rules are the three pillars you need to sort out before you build anything.