Off-Grid Living in Madbury, New Hampshire

I've been digging into what off-grid living actually looks like in Madbury, New Hampshire, and the short version is: Madbury is a fully zoned town, not one of those unzoned New England towns where you can do almost anything. That said, the zoning is written around Madbury's own character as what the town literally calls a "residential bedroom community" with a "lack of public infrastructure," so a lot of what off-gridders want (private well, private septic, no municipal hookups) is already the norm here rather than an exception.

Zoning, set by the Town of Madbury via its Planning Board and Zoning Ordinance (most recently consolidated in 2017 with amendments through 2025), includes overlay districts for aquifer/wellhead protection and flood hazard areas. Raw land isn't banned from residential use, but dimensional rules and these overlays shape what you can build and where. I'd treat this as "varies by parcel" until you check your lot against the town's zoning map.

Dwellings: I found solid detail on Accessory Dwelling Units (Madbury renamed these from "Accessory Apartments" in a 2025 ordinance change), which must be attached to a principal home, meet a minimum size, and have septic certified adequate. I did not find any explicit tiny-house-on-wheels or long-term RV occupancy rule in the material I reviewed, so that's genuinely unclear, call the Building Inspector or Planning Board before you commit to either.

Building permits are issued locally by Madbury's own Building Inspector, and the ordinance is explicit that permits must be issued before construction starts, not after.

Septic is where state law does most of the heavy lifting: New Hampshire RSA 485-A:38, enforced by NH DES, requires septic systems be designed by a licensed septic designer and go through DES's Env-Wq 1000 approval process (design approval, then a separate approval for operation). Madbury's ordinance cross-references this state law directly. I found no town-specific composting toilet rule, so that would fall to state DES/DHHS guidance.

Greywater and rainwater harvesting: I couldn't confirm any Madbury-specific ordinance for either, and I couldn't confirm a dedicated statewide DES greywater rule either. This is genuinely a gap in what's public online, so ask the town directly.

Wells are licensed at the state level through the state Water Well Board, but Madbury layers on its own Aquifer and Wellhead Protection Overlay District, since the town sees itself as a drinking-water source for neighboring communities.

Full utility disconnection: no ordinance explicitly addresses this, but since much of town already lacks public water and sewer, it's implicitly the norm, provided your septic and building permits are in order.

Bottom line: Madbury isn't hostile to off-grid living, but it's not a free-for-all either, and there are real gaps in what I could confirm online.