locations with no zoning/building permits

Hello,
I live in Cochise county, and the limit is 4 acres, not 5. The zoning to look for is RU-4. Then, apply for a building permit using the "opt out of inspection" option. It costs about $160, and can include a 3-year permit to live in an RV on the property while building. Just for the record, I moved here because of this.

Most southern counties in Illinois have NO building codes. Macoupin county is one .

Arkansas and Kansas has homestead land for sale with no restrictions. I'm looking too. I also want to build an earthbag home. Good luck.

Old thread and OP's inquiry is (along with most replies) about the US but for Europe (in case others visitors of this thread, like me, are interested in the topic) I read this article today and it sounds like Spain could be a viable option: https://www.permaculturenews.org/2014/07/17/land-freedom-low-impact-building-spain/

"I didn't realize how rare a county I live in." Which county Bruce? (Thanks)

From what i am seeing on the above referenced table and what I can find on google, Washington County, MO doesn't seem to have any sort of building permits or code. Health code allows SFR with 3 acres to install septic without a permit.
Has anyone come across this area as possible for Superadobe? We just bought 5 acres and they have 15 more adjacent to use and maybe 30 more spread around the county.

I am also very interested in sustainable communities and connecting with lime-minded people, looking to move right away,  would like to stay in touch

We are mortgage-free and off-grid in a rural southern county of Colorado. We can report that, in Colorado generally, and this county of Las Animas specifically, you'll need the following to get to a "fully-permitted" house:

1. septic system permit (implies a successful perk test, and no special system designs) from the local health department. inspectors are good about coming out, but document with pics anyway.
2. building permit (with an "engineered" foundation plan, from your local PE) from the county building department. Inspector doesn't always come when you call, so *always* document all stages with pics; you can refer back to these if anyone questions things later. Saves having to rip things open if inspector is having a bad day. Supposedly, inspector will come out at various stages of construction ... what really happens is he'll want to see the engineered foundation stamp at the permit application stage in his office, where you pay the permit fee, and that is it, until the final inspection at the end of construction.
3. state plumbing and electrical permits (state inspectors for these). Inspectors are scheduled through state website, and are good about coming out. With these folks, the best advice I've ever heard, and it may apply to all others as well, is to "expect some amount of code violations or things they want done differently ... and just do it".

No other permits required that I'm aware of for a built "residential structure". Agriculture (AG) buildings (outbuildings) are less restricted, to the point where they don't really care what you do, if you call it an AG outbuilding. We have seen COB homes, yurts, and others in the area, some at our homestead friends locations. Most likely, all of them had to have a septic system permit, possibly an engineered foundation stamp,  and doubtful on anything else. Most are self-built, and probably self-financed, as ours was (to bypass loan-madness). Further into the pines, and nobody knows or cares.

As others have pointed out, "insurance" is an issue, as would a bank-financed construction loan ... these would make it nearly impossible to do what you want to do with alternative home types. But, insurance is a joke anyway, and adding in our wildfire-prone area ... no self-respecting insurance agency (that is profit-based) would show up around here ... they stick to the cities and their code-heavy environs. We self-insure (to bypass insurance-madness), we are our own fire department, and so on.

Hope this helps ...

Some questions;
What is a perk test for a septic system?
What is this about

insurance-madness

, surely insurance is like the lottery, you buy a ticket to cover potential damage ?
Many people buy lottery tickets.

loan-madness- surely its not madness if the payments are less than the rent you would pay while saving the cash to pay outright.
I have used small loans to pay for the foundations and then I have been able to fly along with my project 2 years before I would have saved enough for them.

John

 
What is a perk test for a septic system?

I'm guessing 'perk test' is short for 'perculation test'.  To test that grey water will soak away at an appropriate rate in a leach field or similar disposal site.  If it goes away too slowly, or too quickly this can cause issues.

These *each* probably deserve their own thread, and one day I hope to get to that ...

Loan-madness is everything around the issue of building "alternative housing" via a bank loan to do so (insert your own horror stories here). Building it in a self-financed way is a method to bypass all of that. Basically, no "requirements" from the bank, in order to build.

Insurance-madness is everything around the issue of trying to insure something these days, be it health insurance, property or home catastrophe insurance, etc. In the old days, you paid in, they paid out, for a disaster. Today, there are just as many restrictions coming from insurance as there are coming from the bank for a bank loan. Deductibles (approaching 10k or more, per year for health), restrictions if you are rural (too far from a fire department or hydrant), legal documents that need a lawyer to decipher, on and on ...

AS: welcome to the Gardens

I live in Johnson County, Missouri... no Zoning, no inspections, nothing. I built my house in 1995, and nobody has ever looked at it for any kind of approval.

ken finch wrote: I am wondering if there is a website that shows counties or areas of land in which do not have zoning laws and do not require building permits? I would rather not have to contact each and every county for which property I may be interested in. I am looking to purchase 1-5 acres to build an earth bag home on. I am open to any state. If you don't know of a website it would be greatly appreciated if you could tell me of a county or area that you know of. Thanks a bunch

your best bet is probably somewhere in the Midwest west coast states are very difficult but no I don't think there is your best bet is to use GIS maps

West coast states are easier to find permit free buildings. Usually have to search "Exception free or no permit building" in each state. Then google should give you results of different counties within the state of choice that you are looking in.

Unincorporated towns I was trying to find a documentary on one it had a man's name I think but couldn't find it. It wasn't slab city which is a option too🙃

It is unrestrictive where I live...

If you want to build a house, then it is on you to build it safe enough to live in. That is kind of how we feel here, so no building codes whatsoever. It really stems from the National Building Code requiring stamped lumber, or lumber from a commercial sawmill. Since many of us here have our own sawmills and tracts of land to get trees, it was from making much of our own lumber that the National Building Code was voted down.

Not that we don't have building permits. We do, but they are cheap. A new house will set you back $50, and an addition on a home or outbuilding will cost you $20. But don't be too nervous, the last time I got one to build a woodworking shop (12 x 24 for $20 building permit), the Permit guy just looked and never even got out of his truck. But anything small, can be built without permits. You could even build a house without one if you started small, and added on every year and be completely legal here in doing so..

We do have environmental laws though for the greater good. As an example, I live on a major river so I cannot just cut all my trees down and mow to the river, I have to maintain a certain area of existing forest, but that all kind of makes sense. Along with some setback distances from property lines. Here it is 15 feet, and 70 feet back from the center of the road. If you have an existing septic system, you must use it, but I know of many families that have outhouses, and they are legal

I guess I could have saved 300 words and just typed: We live where there is common sense here.

I rent land on the Native American territory that no permits are required.  I'm wondering myself where I (non-native American) can purchase land and not need permission to build everything I do. Obviously safety is of high impact,  but if someone already knows the safety aspect the permits are costly and a headache.

its not just common sense to build structure properly. there are no building codes in my county other than septic is needed and if you want grid power wiring needs to be to standard national code. near me there is a house where a concrete slab was poured over what I guess was supposed to be a garage or parking area. it was not reinforced or supported correctly and the whole thing collapsed it is visible from road and thats how I know about it. if your going to build something codes or no codes do it right the first time and it will last a long long time.

Leif Ing wrote:We are looking out towards Washington or Iron County, MO and the surrounding areas too. Still probably 2 years out for us as we fix up the house we live in now, in Kansas City, but for now I can at least look and start paying attention to prices, features, etc.

The wife is finally on board and agrees that country living would be better and healthier for our young kids, although she prefers to stay within 30 miles or so of a decent size town/city for job purposes, and the same radius from a church that fits us... so, we've got some visiting to do. I'm looking for a county without building codes too, even if we mostly would prefer to follow codes as much as possible. Not sure what kind of house she really wants though, as far as she wants us to pay cash for some land and build our own, even if it starts out tiny. She's even been showing me Youtube videos of shipping container homes and the like! It's a start though...

Not sure if you found anything yet... but if your wife wants to stay closer to a major city, I can tell you, I live in unincorporated Johnson County, NW of Warrenseburg, MO.. and we have no building codes here, either. No zoning. I built my standard home from start to finish with no permit, no inspection, so nothing.