Off-Grid Living in Morgan County, Utah

I've been digging into what off-grid living actually looks like in Morgan County, Utah, and the short version is: this is a county with real countywide zoning, its own building department, and a health department (Weber-Morgan) that handles your septic and greywater questions. None of it is impossible, but almost nothing here is a free-for-all either.

Zoning. Morgan County (outside incorporated Morgan City) runs its own land use code, Chapter 155 in the county's American Legal code library, administered by the Morgan County Planning and Development office. It sets up districts like Multiple Use, Agriculture and Rural Residential, and Residential/Multi-Family Residential, and what you can do on a given parcel depends on which district it sits in. I didn't find language that flatly allows tents or yurts as standalone dwellings on raw land, so treat that as a case-by-case zoning question and call Planning before you buy or build.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The county code talks about "extended living areas" and accessory apartments and is explicit that these can't be attached to or inside a mobile home, and that owners generally have to occupy the dwelling except for genuine temporary absences. RV courts and campgrounds are called out as their own regulated use, which suggests parking an RV as a full-time home on a private lot outside those situations isn't the county's default assumption, though I found no specific day-limit rule for private-lot RV living.

Building permits. The Morgan County Building Department issues permits and requires plan-review deposits (separate from final fees) for dwellings, solar, and accessory structures, plus fire protection plan approval, routed to the Mountain Green Fire Chief if you're in that area, or the county Fire Marshal otherwise. This sits on top of the state's Title 15A construction code baseline.

Septic and greywater. Morgan County hands septic permitting off entirely to the Weber-Morgan Health Department, which applies Utah's statewide Rule R317-4 onsite wastewater rules. Greywater looks to be handled the same way, under the state's R317-401 rule, with no separate county ordinance found. Composting toilets aren't addressed anywhere I could confirm, so ask Weber-Morgan directly.

Rainwater. Good news here: Utah's state rainwater harvesting law (Utah Code 73-3-1.5) permits collection, and I found no Morgan County rule cutting against it.

Wells. Wells fall under the state Division of Water Rights and its well construction rules, but Morgan Valley specifically has had its own hydrogeologic study and area policy discussions, so groundwater appropriation here may be more particular than the general state rule. Call the Division or the county Building Department's well line before you drill.

Utility disconnection. The county code has a section titled "Water and sewer require Health Department approval," but I couldn't retrieve its full text, so whether an approved well and septic can fully replace grid utility hookups for occupancy purposes is genuinely unclear. This is a direct question for Morgan County Planning or Building.