Off-Grid Living in Beaver County, Utah

If you're eyeing raw land in Beaver County, Utah for an off-grid setup, here's what I've found digging through county and state sources, plus a fair warning about what's still up in the air.

Zoning. Beaver County has countywide zoning under its Title 9 Zoning Regulations, run by the Planning & Zoning Commission and a Zoning Administrator. That's true even for land near Beaver City, Milford City, and Minersville Town. The county is reportedly working on a "Glamping/Nightly Rental/Tiny Home Overlay," but as of the planning agendas I reviewed, that's still a work-meeting draft, not adopted law. So before you plan on a yurt, tent, or RV-as-residence on raw land, call Planning & Zoning about your specific parcel's zone.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. This one's genuinely unsettled. The county keeps discussing tiny-home overlays and cluster subdivisions in meeting agendas going back to 2022, which tells me there's no finalized countywide tiny-home standard yet. Foundation-built tiny homes likely fall under standard building code; wheeled units get treated like RVs under the state baseline until the county finishes its overlay work.

Building permits. The county's Building Department covers the whole county, including inside Beaver City, Milford City, and Minersville Town, under contract. Locally, a structure up to 200 square feet without electricity is exempt from a permit, but anything over 200 square feet needs one regardless of power hookup. Frost depth is set at 30 inches below grade, and snow load runs 30 psf in most valley areas, with engineering-determined loads above 6,200 feet elevation. Any construction, alteration, or utility system installation triggers the permit requirement, per the county's own rule.

Septic. Septic permitting isn't handled by the county directly, it's the Southwest Utah Public Health Department (SWUPHD), covering Beaver and four neighboring counties. You'll need a soil/percolation test and a Septic System Application, with soil testing and design done by a certified professional, following the state's R317-4 rule. I didn't find anything specific on composting toilets, so that's a call to SWUPHD.

Greywater. No county-specific greywater ordinance turned up. It falls back to the state's R317-401 permit-through-local-health-department framework, administered locally through SWUPHD presumably, though I couldn't confirm a distinct local process.

Rainwater. Nothing at the county level modifies Utah's statewide allowance for rainwater collection, which runs through the Division of Water Rights registration system.

Wells. This is where Beaver County has a real wrinkle: it contains the Beaver Valley Groundwater Management Area, an actively managed groundwater basin. State law now requires even shallow wells (30 feet or less) to be built by a licensed driller, no more DIY exemption. I couldn't confirm specific spacing or allocation rules for the management area from an official source, so that's one to run past the Division of Water Rights directly.

Utility disconnection. No standalone rule found requiring hookups for occupancy. But you'll still need to clear the building and septic permitting hurdles regardless of grid connection.

Bottom line: Beaver County is workable for off-grid living, but several pieces (tiny-home rules, well specifics in the managed area) are genuinely in flux or under-documented, so a couple of phone calls before you buy land will save you headaches.