Off-Grid Living in Lyndon, Vermont

I've been digging into Lyndon, Vermont for anyone thinking about living off-grid there, and the short version is: this is a zoned town, and both zoning and septic/water rules matter here, layered with state authority on top of local rules.

Zoning. Lyndon has had zoning since 1964 (formally ratified by the Vermont Legislature), and as of 2026 it merged with the Village of Lyndonville into one municipal corporation. The town has ten zoning districts, from Rural Residential to Industrial, and what you can do with land depends entirely on which district it's in. For a permitted use, you'd get a zoning permit from the town's Administrative Officer; for anything conditional, the Development Review Board has to weigh in. I'll flag that Lyndon's bylaws are apparently under active revision, so don't take an old PDF as gospel, call the Zoning Administrator to confirm what's currently in force.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. The bylaw specifically addresses mobile homes, requiring that sewage disposal on a mobile home lot meet state rules and that lot dimensions satisfy district regulations. I did not find specific language on tiny homes or RVs as permanent residences, so that's genuinely unclear, take it straight to the Zoning Administrator before you commit to a plan.

Building permits. Vermont doesn't have one single statewide residential building code that overrides everything, but Lyndon requires its own zoning permit before you build, issued by the Administrative Officer. Any variance or conditional use goes to the DRB.

Septic and composting toilets. This one's mostly out of the town's hands. Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation took universal jurisdiction over wastewater and water supply permitting statewide back in 2007, meaning any new septic or water system, including for a single-family home, goes through DEC's Regional Office Program, not a town office. Lyndon's own bylaw echoes this for mobile home lots.

Greywater. Same story: treated by the state as a wastewater system needing a DEC permit. I found no separate Lyndon greywater rule, so the state is your authority here.

Rainwater harvesting. I found nothing in Lyndon's bylaws restricting this, so it looks like the state baseline (no special permit) applies, though I'd still confirm nothing's changed with the town office.

Wells. Private water supplies fall under DEC's Water Supply Rule, run through the same Regional Office system as septic. No Lyndon-specific well ordinance turned up in my research.

Disconnected living. I didn't find any requirement in Lyndon's bylaws that a home has to hook into municipal electric, water, or sewer. That said, "off-grid" doesn't mean "off-permit": you'd still need a zoning permit for the structure and a state permit for any wastewater/water system supporting it.

Bottom line: expect two layers of paperwork in Lyndon, town zoning and state DEC water/wastewater permitting, and confirm details directly since the bylaws are being revised.