Off-Grid Living in Marshall County, Tennessee

I'll be upfront: Marshall County, Tennessee is a bit of an outlier compared to a lot of rural Tennessee counties I look at. Many counties in this state skip zoning and building codes altogether, but Marshall County has actively adopted both a countywide Zoning Ordinance and building code enforcement through its own Building Inspector/Codes office. That changes the off-grid calculus quite a bit, so don't assume "rural Tennessee" freedoms apply here without checking.

Zoning. Marshall County administers its own Zoning Ordinance, covering rural, agricultural, and commercial districts, with a Planning & Zoning Official who handles complaints, variances, and appeals. Where you can put a dwelling, and what you can do with raw land, depends on the zoning district shown on the county's zoning map, so I'd call the Planning & Zoning office before buying land with an off-grid plan in mind.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The county enforces the 2018 International Building Code through its Building Department. Whether the county has adopted the tiny-home-friendly Appendix Q, or how it treats RVs and tiny houses on wheels used as permanent residences, isn't confirmed in the sources I found. This is a direct question for the Codes Official.

Building permits. Unlike counties that opt out of state building code enforcement, Marshall County runs its own Codes office and requires permits, inspections, and compliance with the 2018 IRC for residential construction. This is a county-level requirement, not just a state suggestion.

Septic and composting toilets. Septic systems in Tennessee are a state program run by TDEC (under Tennessee Code Title 68, Chapter 221), typically administered through local health departments. I could not confirm a Marshall County-specific septic office page, so I'd start with TDEC's statewide septic portal and ask them to route you locally.

Greywater. No Marshall County ordinance on greywater reuse turned up in my research. This falls back to the Tennessee state baseline, where subsurface greywater irrigation is technically allowed under plumbing code but enforcement is inconsistent county to county.

Rainwater harvesting. No county restriction found. Tennessee's state baseline is permissive here, and that appears to carry through to Marshall County.

Wells. Private wells fall under the statewide Tennessee Water Well Act, with TDEC setting casing and construction standards. Marshall County also runs its own public water utility (MCBPU) serving most of the county as an alternative to drilling, but that's a service option, not a well regulator.

Utility disconnection. I found no Marshall County ordinance mandating hookup to MCBPU water service or sewer. This inherits the state baseline: going off-grid electrically is largely unrestricted, water/sewer disconnection gets more complicated if municipal service is already accessible to your parcel.

Bottom line: confirm zoning district and building code specifics directly with the county before you commit to a plan, since Marshall County is actively enforcing rules that many neighboring counties don't.