Off-Grid Living in San Juan County, New Mexico

I've been digging into San Juan County, New Mexico for readers thinking about going off-grid out there, and the short version is: it's workable, but you're dealing with two layers of rules, county and state, and they don't always spell everything out.

Zoning. San Juan County's Community Development / Planning Office handles land-use here, but the county doesn't have a wall-to-wall zoning map the way a lot of suburban counties do. It runs more on subdivision regulations (adopted in 2021) that govern how raw land gets divided and built out. If you're inside Farmington city limits, ADUs are explicitly allowed and even encouraged; outside the city, in unincorporated county land, things are reviewed more case-by-case. Bottom line: call the Planning Office before you assume anything about a specific parcel.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The county's Ordinance 76 kicks in once you put 3 or more RVs or manufactured homes on one parcel, that requires a park license. A single RV or tiny home on your own rural lot isn't clearly addressed in what I found, so I'd treat that as a "confirm with the county" item. Manufactured/mobile homes fall under the state's Manufactured Housing Division, and New Mexico requires an inspection of any mobile home on a permanent foundation before utilities get turned on.

Building permits. The county Building Department (which also covers Aztec, Bloomfield, and Kirtland by agreement) requires permits for houses, additions, accessory buildings, decks, and ag buildings. If the place is your primary residence, you can pull a homeowner's permit and skip hiring a licensed contractor, drawing your own plans is fine. Permits expire after a year but can be renewed.

Septic. The state's NMED Liquid Waste Program issues septic permits everywhere in New Mexico except Bernalillo County, and San Juan follows that baseline, but the county tacks on its own density rule: you need at least 0.75 acres per septic system. Homeowners can also self-install after passing NMED's homeowner exam.

Greywater and rainwater. I couldn't find any county-specific rules on either, so the state's baseline applies: small greywater systems are exempt under state rule, and rainwater harvesting is generally encouraged by the State Engineer's office.

Wells. All well permitting in New Mexico runs through the Office of the State Engineer, not the county. You'll need an OSE permit before drilling, and OSE also licenses the drillers.

Utilities. I found no county ordinance forcing you to hook up to electric, water, or sewer to legally live somewhere. The only utility-linked trigger is that permanent-foundation mobile homes need inspection before utilities are activated, that's about inspection timing, not a hookup mandate. Whether fully utility-free occupancy is fine countywide isn't confirmed, so ask the Building Department directly.