Off-Grid Living in Washington County, New York

I'll be upfront: Washington County, New York is a tricky place to research off-grid rules because the county itself doesn't do zoning. Under New York's Home Rule setup, land-use decisions belong to each town and village, not the county. So whether you can camp on raw land, put up a tiny house, or live without a Certificate of Occupancy depends heavily on which town your parcel sits in. The county's real regulatory muscle shows up in two places: building code enforcement (Local Law No. 3 of 2007) and the county Sanitary Code for septic systems (Local Law No. 1 of 1988, amended 1989), both run by the Washington County Department of Code Enforcement.

Zoning: No countywide code exists. Some towns (Salem, Hartford, Kingsbury, and others) have their own zoning and compliance officers; others don't. You have to check with your specific town or village before assuming anything about raw-land occupancy.

Dwellings/tiny homes/RVs: I found no county-level rule classifying tiny homes or RVs as legal dwellings. What I did find is a clear process: you go to your town or village compliance officer first, they determine if zoning or planning board review is needed, sign off, and only then does the county issue a building permit. That town-level gatekeeping is where the real answer to "can I live in a tiny house or RV here" lives.

Building permits: The county enforces the NYS Uniform Code and requires permits for most projects, with one clear exception I can confirm: small detached sheds under 144 square feet don't need one. An engineer/architect stamp isn't required for most residential structures under 1,500 square feet. Depending on where your land sits, you may also need sign-off from the Adirondack Park Agency, Lake George Park Commission, DEC, or DOH.

Septic: This is where the county is genuinely stricter and more hands-on than the state baseline. The Washington County Sanitary Code requires a sewage disposal permit, mandates two percolation tests plus a deep test hole for each proposed absorption field, and requires designs to meet both the county code and NYSDOH standards. Holding tanks are not allowed for new construction. Composting toilets aren't specifically addressed at the county level as far as I could confirm, so I'd assume the state DOH baseline applies and check directly with Code Enforcement.

Greywater and rainwater: I found nothing county-specific on either. These likely fall back to state-level rules by default, but confirm with the county Department of Code Enforcement before building a reuse system.

Wells: New York State DOH is the real authority here, not the county. The county's Public Health Service coordinates with the state, including on water contamination response, but doesn't run its own well-permitting program that I could confirm.

Utilities: There's no countywide mandate I could find requiring grid connection to occupy a dwelling. It comes down to whether your town's building department will issue a Certificate of Occupancy, and that varies town by town.

Bottom line: treat the county as the septic and building-permit authority, and treat your specific town as the zoning authority. You genuinely can't skip calling your town office.