Off-Grid Living in Berkshire, Vermont

I'll be upfront: Berkshire, Vermont is a real, small Franklin County town, and like most Vermont towns it has its own zoning bylaws layered on top of state rules. That combination is exactly what trips people up when they're dreaming about buying raw land and going off-grid here, so let me walk through what I found and where the gaps are.

Zoning is local, and it's active. Berkshire adopted zoning bylaws back in 2001 and updated them, including district overlays, in 2025. That means the Town of Berkshire, through its Planning Commission, Selectboard, and Zoning Administrator, decides what you can do with raw land, not just the state. I could not pull the actual bylaw text (districts, setbacks, minimum lot sizes) in my research, so anyone serious about a parcel needs to call the Town Office and get the current bylaw PDF or talk to the Zoning Administrator directly.

Tiny homes, RVs, and alternative dwellings: genuinely unclear. I didn't find Berkshire-specific language addressing whether an RV or tiny home counts as a legal dwelling. This is almost certainly defined somewhere in the bylaws' definitions section, but I don't have that text, so I'm not going to guess at it. Ask the Zoning Administrator.

Building permits are handled through the Town Office, per the town's own "Resources" page, which lists permits, licenses, and zoning application forms. I don't have specifics on what triggers a permit or what it costs, so confirm with the Town Office before you build anything.

Septic, greywater, and wells are not addressed by Berkshire specifically in what I found. These fall to the State of Vermont, specifically the Agency of Natural Resources' DEC Wastewater Management Division, which administers the statewide Wastewater System and Potable Water Supply Rules. That covers septic and composting toilet approval, greywater handling, and well construction and testing standards. Any composting toilet or graywater system still needs to satisfy the state rules unless Berkshire has a local supplement I didn't find.

Rainwater harvesting appears to be permitted under the state's general posture, with no Berkshire restriction turning up in my research.

Off-grid living itself, no utility hookups, appears permitted. I found no Berkshire bylaw requiring a hookup to municipal water, sewer, or power. But "off-grid" doesn't mean "off the rules": your septic/wastewater system still needs state DEC approval, and your structure still needs to satisfy local zoning and any building permit requirements.

Bottom line honesty check: the biggest hole in my research is the actual bylaw text. Adoption dates and overlay maps are confirmed, but district-by-district rules on dwelling size, setbacks, and RV occupancy are not in hand. Don't buy land here assuming off-grid living is a slam dunk until you've had that conversation with the Town Office.