Off-Grid Living in Martinsville city, Virginia

I'll be upfront: Martinsville is a small independent city in Virginia, which trips people up because it's not part of Henry County even though it sits inside it. That means Martinsville runs its own zoning code and building permit office, separate from any county rules you might read about nearby. For septic and well permitting, though, the city relies on the state, specifically the Virginia Department of Health's regional environmental health office that covers the Martinsville/Henry County area.

Zoning. Martinsville's zoning ordinance, administered by the city's Planning & Zoning office, splits the city into about ten districts. I found one clear, city-specific rule that matters a lot for off-grid plans: the R-C City Residential District requires public water and sewer service for all uses. That's a city-added rule, not a state one, and it means raw-land off-grid occupancy (no hookups) doesn't look workable there. I could not confirm whether the other residential districts (R-N, R-E, R-T) carry the same requirement, so don't assume either way, ask the Zoning Administrator directly.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. I did not find a Martinsville-specific ordinance addressing tiny houses on wheels or RV living. In the absence of a local rule, the practical assumption is the state baseline applies (THOWs generally treated like RVs, foundation tiny homes treated like standard dwellings under Virginia's building code), but this is not confirmed for Martinsville specifically. Call Community Development before you buy or build.

Building permits. These are required city-wide for construction, alteration, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, gas, and fire-protection work, per the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code as administered locally by Martinsville's Community Development / Permits office.

Septic, wells, greywater, rainwater. None of these have a Martinsville-specific ordinance that I could find, so they inherit the state VDH framework: a permit for a septic system or private well is needed before the city will issue a building permit if you're not on public water/sewer, and applications typically need a DPOR-licensed private consultant's work attached. Greywater and rainwater harvesting fall under the same statewide VDH program, with no added city rule found.

Utility disconnection. This is the trickiest one. Because the R-C district explicitly mandates public water and sewer, going fully off-grid on water/sewer may be a non-starter there, and I couldn't confirm the rule for the other districts. No electrical grid-connection mandate turned up in my research, but confirm this locally too.

Bottom line: Martinsville's own zoning code is the wildcard here, more restrictive in at least one district than the state baseline. Septic, wells, greywater, and rainwater all seem to just follow Virginia's statewide rules. Call the Zoning Administrator before you commit to a property.