Off-Grid Living in Montgomery County, Tennessee

I've been digging into what it actually takes to live off-grid in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and the first thing I want to flag is a common misconception: this is NOT one of those "no zoning" rural Tennessee counties people romanticize. Montgomery County has had a countywide zoning resolution since 1964 (reissued February 2024), administered by the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission (CMCRPC), covering all unincorporated land outside Clarksville city limits. If your parcel is inside Clarksville, a totally separate city zoning code and city Building & Codes office apply, so step one is confirming which side of that line you're on.

On dwellings, I couldn't find county-specific rules addressing tiny homes under Appendix Q or long-term RV living as a permanent residence. The county's Building and Codes Department does require permits for single-family homes, mobile homes, additions, and outbuildings, but treats these fairly conventionally. Until I find something more specific, I'd call this "not confirmed" and assume the state baseline applies, meaning you should ask Building and Codes directly whether Appendix Q (the simplified tiny-home code) is in effect locally.

Permits are very much required here. The county has not opted out of code enforcement. A residential permit application needs things like a site plan, an Adequate Facilities Tax receipt, a road-damage bond or TDOT letter, and critically, a septic permit from the county's Environmental and Groundwater Protection office before you can even pull the building permit. Tennessee law does let homeowners self-permit their own personal-use construction periodically under state statute, but you still have to meet every inspection requirement.

Septic is a hard requirement, there's no dry-cabin exemption I could find. This is a state (TDEC) rule administered locally. Composting toilets would need NSF Standard 41 certification under the same state baseline.

Greywater reuse is genuinely unclear at the county level, no local ordinance was found either way, so it falls back to the state plumbing code, which technically allows subsurface irrigation reuse. I'd confirm specifics with the county Environmental office.

Rainwater harvesting looks fine, no county restriction turned up, and the stormwater program regulates development runoff, not household catchment. Private wells are legal and state-regulated, requiring a licensed well driller, even though most residents near Clarksville are on the public water system.

Utility disconnection itself isn't restricted, but I found no county ordinance either mandating or exempting connection to public water/sewer where it's available, so that's another one to confirm directly, especially since Clarksville's in-city rules may differ from the unincorporated county.

Bottom line: Montgomery County is more regulated than the "off-grid friendly" stereotype of rural Tennessee, so budget time for phone calls before you buy land.