Off-Grid Living in Washington, New Hampshire

I've been digging into what off-grid living actually looks like in Washington, New Hampshire, and the short answer is: this is a zoned town, so you're working within a real ordinance, not a legal vacuum.

Zoning. Washington has an adopted Land Use Ordinance (LUO) administered by the Board of Selectmen, a Planning Board, and a Zoning Board of Adjustment operating under state authority (RSA 676:1). The LUO governs structures, setbacks, and land activities town-wide, and it outright bans a few uses like junkyards, commercial landfills, and incinerators. If you're buying raw land here, assume the LUO applies to whatever you want to build or do on it.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. I didn't find language in the LUO that speaks directly to tiny houses on wheels or RVs as dwellings. Any dwelling construction needs a Land Use Compliance Permit reviewed by the Selectmen, but how that permit process treats an RV-as-residence isn't spelled out in what I've reviewed. Call the Selectmen's office before you commit to that plan.

Building permits. You'll need the "Application for Land Use Compliance Permit for Construction," reviewed by the Selectmen. If they deny it, you can appeal to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, and you'll get a hearing. Importantly, the town won't approve this permit without proof of septic approval, and you have to certify that sanitary facilities will be available for builders during construction.

Septic. This is layered: the town's LUO requires septic fields set back at least 35 feet from road culverts and ditches, on top of New Hampshire DES's statewide subsurface system rules (Env-Wq 1000) that any system has to meet regardless of town. I didn't find a separate composting-toilet carve-out in the town material, so I'd treat composting toilets as needing DES-equivalent approval until you confirm otherwise with DES directly.

Greywater and rainwater. Neither is addressed specifically in what I found for Washington, and New Hampshire doesn't have a dedicated statewide DES rule for residential greywater reuse that I've seen. Treat both as unconfirmed and worth a direct call to DES and the town.

Wells. The LUO adds its own local rule on top of the state's Water Well Board licensing regime (RSA 482-B): wells must be at least 50 feet from the edge of the right of way.

Off-grid utilities. I didn't find a blanket rule forcing you onto municipal water or sewer (which makes sense, Washington is rural and mostly on private wells and septic anyway). But the LUO does prohibit building structures and their supporting utilities on wetland, so site selection matters.

Bottom line: Washington isn't hostile to off-grid living, but it's not unregulated either. The permit and septic-approval linkage is the piece people most often trip over, so start there.