Off-grid zoning

[scholarlysoul]

I'm not quite sure if this is in the right place or not but I thought this would be the best place. But I live in south Carolina and I've been extremely interested in living off-grid for a year and plan to do so in the future somewhere in North Carolina. But I've heard stories of off-gridders being forced off their land they worked hard to save up to buy, forced to demolish the home they built with their own hands, served with ridiculous fines even jail time for not connecting to local utilities. And to me this sounds like strong-arm tactics. Isn't there some law against this kind of thing?.

The U.S. was created under the foundation of liberty and freedom but the way I see it the government, state, and local zoning enforcement are essentially breaking essential constitutional right by forcing off-gridders into connecting to city utilities. Shouldn't off-grid housing be allowed as long as it meets safety and aesthetic standards and does not cause any unnecessary human and environmental harm?. Is there no way to give the American citizens the right to choose weather they want to connect to local utilities or not?.

 

[FlyingRon]

You can wave the flag all you want, but you still have to follow the local zoning and health rules. Even in North Carolina the rules vary from county to county (and sometimes within county). Nobody has been "forced off their land" but they are required to have proper water and septic systems, and in some cases electricity hookups. Of course, you can be like my place in NC. While I am on grid technically, I'm entirely self sufficient in power generation, water, and septic. If we didn't have such crappy cell service, I'd not have a phone line either.

 

[FarmerJ]

scholarlysoul even though its been almost 3 weeks since you posted have you learned what your county requires for onsite sewage treatment ? In some places concrete pit tanks are acceptable for outhouses .in some place holding tanks are fine but then one must be able to show receipts given by the pumping company who comes to empty it and how often. BUT while your at it if your county tells you that you must have a mound style septic system that means it has to have a pump in the tank and if your that determined to not have electric power then you would want to find a sewage pump that will work from battery - connected to windmill or solar panels ( if your county will not force you to have standard electric brought in you also should find out if your well needs standard power to produce enough water or if more shallow well would work with low voltage pump) housing your county can make you follow state codes if you build a structure as well as having rules say if you were to bring in a mobile home, but they might not have ordinances regulating those who park RVs or some kind of camper on the site and move it say like in winter or like a pop up camper and fold it up and just leave it chained to a tree for the winter. ( Ive seen a number of landowners here that do the rv / camper thing on land that has little to no improvement year after year , some of them even have small shed/ structures to store things they put away every time they leave)