Off-Grid Living in Montgomery County, Ohio

Montgomery County, Ohio is one of those places where I have to keep reminding readers: there's no countywide zoning code here. The Montgomery County Planning Commission acts only as an advisory and platting/subdivision body for unincorporated township land. Real zoning power, the stuff that determines whether you can even live on raw land or park an RV, sits with each individual township, city, or village. Jefferson Township's own site is blunt about it: county permits can't be issued without township zoning sign-off first, and starting with the county instead of the township will just delay your project. So step one for anyone eyeing a parcel here is calling that specific township or city zoning office, not the county.

Building code enforcement is more centralized. Montgomery County Business Services (Building Regulations) handles permits and inspections for new construction, additions, and change-of-use across the townships and several cities/villages in the county. But bigger cities like Dayton, Kettering, and Centerville often run their own building departments, so confirm which authority actually covers your address.

On water and waste, Ohio's statewide framework (Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 3701-29) does most of the heavy lifting, and it's administered locally by Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County. Their Household Sewage Treatment System (HSTS) Program issues septic permits and runs an Operation & Maintenance program that existing permit holders get enrolled in. I didn't find anything singling out composting toilets separately, so I'd assume they fall under the same HSTS oversight until the health district tells you otherwise. Greywater reuse is allowed under that same 2015 statewide sewage rule, with room for the local health district to adjust for site conditions, but no Montgomery County-specific greywater rule beyond that state baseline showed up in my research.

Private wells go through the same health department's Private Water System Program, permit required for new wells or upgrades, not for minor repairs. If you're on county water but want to keep an old well for irrigation, it needs to meet current construction standards and have a sampling tap, or it has to be properly abandoned and sealed.

Rainwater harvesting has no dedicated county page that I could find, it seems to fall under the state's private water system rules for cisterns as a water source, but that's not fully confirmed at the county level.

As for going fully off-grid, no utility hookups, I found no Montgomery County ordinance mandating connection to electric, water, or sewer for occupancy. Your real constraints will be the building code (whoever enforces it in your jurisdiction) and, if you have any sewage system, the health district's septic/O&M rules.

Bottom line: this is a "call your township first" county. Everything downstream, building permits, septic, wells, depends on getting zoning clearance from the right local authority before anything else moves forward.