Off-Grid Living in Cornish, New Hampshire

If you're looking at raw land in Cornish, New Hampshire for an off-grid setup, here's what I found digging through the town's own paperwork and state statute.

Zoning is real here. Cornish is not one of those unzoned New Hampshire towns. The Town adopted a Zoning Ordinance back in 1974 (amended many times since, under the state's zoning enabling law, RSA 674:16), and it divides the town into Village, Residential, and Rural districts, each with its own minimum lot size, from 1 acre up to 5 acres in the Rural district, plus setback and lot-coverage rules. The ordinance's general clause is blunt: nothing gets built, occupied, or used except as the ordinance permits. Some uses need a Special Exception from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, so if your plan is unconventional, budget time for that process.

Tiny homes and RVs as full-time dwellings: I couldn't find a Cornish-specific rule addressing these directly. That doesn't mean anything goes, it means the general structure and use provisions of the Zoning Ordinance would likely apply, and the Planning Board or ZBA would probably need to weigh in on anything nonconforming. Confirm directly with the Planning Board before you commit.

Building permits: The town's Select Board page lists a Building Permit among its standard permits, so Cornish issues and enforces these locally. This lines up with state law (RSA 155-A:2, III), which leaves enforcement to municipalities.

Septic and composting toilets: No town-specific composting toilet ordinance turned up. Septic systems fall under New Hampshire's statewide program run by the DES Subsurface Systems Bureau, so that's who to plan around for any wastewater system.

Greywater and rainwater: Nothing Cornish-specific here. Greywater isn't spelled out in the state's baseline plumbing rules either, and rainwater harvesting appears to just fall under the general state-adopted Residential/Plumbing Code, with no local restriction found.

Wells: No Cornish well ordinance. This is state territory, under the NH Water Well Board (RSA 482-B).

Full utility disconnection: I didn't find any Cornish ordinance explicitly requiring a hookup to water or sewer as a condition of occupancy. The general occupancy clause in the Zoning Ordinance is the operative local text, but there's no explicit off-grid ban or requirement documented.

Bottom line: Cornish gives you more structure to work within than an unzoned town, lot size and district rules matter a lot here, but several of the specific off-grid questions (tiny homes, greywater, utility disconnection) simply aren't spelled out in what I could find. That's a "call and confirm" situation, not a green light or red light.