Off-Grid Living in Dummerston, Vermont

Dummerston, Vermont is a zoned town, and that surprises some people who assume rural Vermont towns are wide open. The zoning bylaw was adopted by the town back in 2015 and has been amended a couple of times since (most recently in 2022, per the Windham Regional Commission records), and it requires a zoning permit for essentially any "land development," which is defined broadly to include new construction, structural changes, or a change of use of land or buildings. Simple maintenance and repair that doesn't change the exterior or use of a structure doesn't trigger this requirement, but almost anything else you'd want to do to set up an off-grid homestead probably will.

I couldn't find town-specific language addressing tiny homes, minimum dwelling size, or RV living in the materials I reviewed. The full bylaw document (a lengthy PDF) likely has district-by-district dimensional standards that I didn't get into, so if a tiny house or RV as a residence is your plan, I'd call the Zoning Administrator before you buy land or move anything onto it.

Building permitting in Dummerston runs through that same zoning permit process, and applications require you to certify compliance with the Vermont Residential Building Energy Standards (RBES), which is a state-level energy code, not something the town wrote itself. State law gives the town a window to act on permit applications, and once issued, permits must be posted for a period to allow for appeals before you can start building. So there's a real process here, not just a rubber stamp.

For septic, greywater, and wells, I didn't find any Dummerston-specific ordinances. That means you're working under the state baseline: Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation administers the Wastewater System and Potable Water Supply Rules, which cover septic design, greywater handling, and well construction statewide. The town's zoning application does ask about Current Use enrollment and Riparian Zone status, so there's some coordination between town and state review, but the actual permitting authority for septic and wells sits with the state, not the town.

Rainwater harvesting doesn't appear to be restricted by anything in the bylaw materials I found, so I'd call that permitted under the state baseline absent any town rule to the contrary.

On utilities: Dummerston doesn't have municipal water or sewer serving most of the town, and I found no town rule forcing a hookup to anything. Living disconnected from the grid appears workable in principle, but you'll still need a zoning permit for whatever structures you build, and any on-site septic or well work still needs to satisfy the state DEC rules. Interestingly, I didn't find a distinct "building inspector" role for Dummerston; the Zoning Administrator seems to be the main point of contact for construction-related questions in this town, which is worth knowing before you go looking for a separate building department.