Off-Grid Living in Lander County, Nevada

I've been digging into Lander County, Nevada for anyone thinking about going off-grid out around Battle Mountain and the surrounding valleys. Here's what I found, and where the record runs out.

Zoning isn't optional here. Lander County runs countywide zoning through its Planning & Zoning Department, with districts from A-1 through A-4 (agricultural), R-1 through R-4 (residential), plus commercial designations, each with its own setback rules. This lives in Title 17 of the county code. So "buy raw land and do whatever" isn't quite accurate, you need to know your parcel's district before planning anything.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The county's zoning code has a dedicated chapter on manufactured/mobile home siting (Title 17, Ch. 17.50). For RVs and park trailers, the size cutoff (400 square feet) that separates a "recreational park trailer" from a "manufactured home" is set by Nevada state law, not the county. Whether you can legally live in an RV or tiny home full-time on raw land is a zoning determination I couldn't confirm from what's public, so call Planning & Zoning directly before you commit.

Building permits are real and codes are current. Lander County has adopted 2018-era IBC, IRC, IECC, and related codes, plus the 2017 NEC, with local structural requirements including Seismic Zone D designation countywide. The Building Department issues permits and inspects; fees are based on project valuation rather than a flat number, so don't take any dollar figure as gospel until the department quotes you.

Septic comes before building. This is a state rule (Nevada Administrative Code 444.784) that Lander County enforces through its own Building & Planning Department rather than a separate health district: you need septic (ISDS) approval before a building permit gets issued. Encouragingly, owner-builders are allowed to install their own septic system, though the county urges you to know the regs first. Composting toilets aren't addressed anywhere I could find at the county level, so that's genuinely unclear, ask the Building Department directly.

Greywater has no county-specific ordinance that I could locate. It likely falls under whatever plumbing code the county applies case by case, but I'd call this unconfirmed.

Rainwater harvesting is permitted under Nevada state law (AB 138) for non-potable use from a single-family home's roof, and I found no Lander County rule narrowing that.

Wells are governed mainly by the state. Domestic wells are exempt from Nevada's water-right permitting process under state statute, capped at two acre-feet per year for household use. If you want more than one dwelling on a well, you need local governing body approval.

Living off-grid itself isn't prohibited. Nothing in county code bars disconnecting from utilities, but your structure still has to pass building and septic review regardless of whether you're on the grid.

Bottom line: zoning and building codes are firmly county-administered, septic and wells lean on state rules the county enforces locally, and greywater/composting toilets are genuine gaps in the public record worth a phone call.