THEY DONT WANT YOU TO GO OFF GRID
You cant do that! Think about society and how we are all raised. Raised to conform into a little square box. Told we cant do this and we cant do that! ENSLAVEMENT. We all must go to collage. We all must buy the house and have the 1.5 kids. Even in daily life they dont want you to be independent. We need plumbers and electricians and doctors and lawyers and financial planners. WHY?
Because thats their job and NOT YOURS! Dont learn to do your own mechanical work. Don’t learn to be you own electrician. Don’t learn to set up your own solar or build your own house. WE THE PEOPLE must not learn to be versatile and independent of the system.
THIS is reality! FOR those of us who want to go off grid we are actually going against the grain of society. THATS WHY the government doesn’t WANT us to do THAT! So as Mr Hilder is captured during one of his rants, listen and hear what WE THE HILDERS think about ….YOU CANT DO THAT!! You may think twice about your own reality and going off grid and being a little more self reliant!
The off-grid lifestyle, enjoyed by an estimated 800 people, is now being threatened as county officials have recently made moves to essentially regulate and license the lifestyle into oblivion.
One of the major points of contention is the county’s attempt to ban camping on your own property, in an effort to force the off-grid homesteaders back onto the grid.
VIA : By Off Grid World
OK, here’s the deal. Off grid living is illegal. Sometimes. Sort of. Let’s start off by clearing up some misconceptions. In it’s most simplistic definition, being “off grid” is being disconnected from the public power grid. Off grid living by itself is not technically illegal. Producing your own power is off grid living and perfectly legal. Growing your own food is living off the grid, and legal. Building your own home in the country while not being connected to the power grid is off grid. So is raising livestock, building a greenhouse, planting your garden, etc. All legal.
RELATED : This “Farm In A Box” Can Provide Enough Food To Feed 150 People For An Entire Year
The problem arrises when overly restrictive city and county ordinances and zoning restrictions put a crimp on the off grid lifestyle and make it illegal to do certain things on or with your property. That’s when it becomes illegal to live off grid.
The Problems:
- Camping on Your Own Land is Illegal – Yes! You read that right. In most places throughout the USA, it is illegal to camp on your own land for more than 2 weeks. This seems to be an arbitrary duration that most counties and cities have adopted. Some believe this is about keeping homeless people from setting up tent cities and devaluing surrounding properties. This means that if you wanted to camp in a travel trailer while you build your cabin you can’t camp there for more than two weeks unless you get a long-term camping permit from your city. Good luck with that. You must get a permit to camp on your own land if it’s more than two weeks in duration. If they will not issue a permit, then you can’t camp on your land, and subsequently you cannot build your cabin…unless you have another place to stay while you’re building, and that defeats the purpose of having your own land to being with. Not to mention it increases the costs exponentially.
- Minimum Square Footage For Your Home – There are zoning restrictions which say your dwelling (whether a cabin or a house) must meet the minimum square footage requirements or the city/county will not issue a building permit. All buildings/dwellings must be approved by the city and county office and you must get a permit before building. Most county’s minimum home size is between 500-1000 square foot (minimum). This means that if you want a 200-400 square foot cabin on your land, it’s probably going to be illegal to build it because the city/county will not issue a building permit. Not to mention your cabin must meet international building codes. If your building does not meet building codes you will be in violation of the law even if you do get a building permit. There is a way to build smaller than the minimum square footage, and that’s by getting what’s called a variance. Which is relatively difficult to get approved. This means that a tiny house, tiny cabin, or small home will be illegal to build.
- Minimum Lot Size – Usually within city limits the lot sizes are small (sometimes as small as 5000 sq ft., and placed closer together. But once you move out further from the city/town center into rural areas, the minimum lot sizes become much larger and the county will not allow you to parcel out your land less than a certain size in acres. Most minimum lot sizes are around 5-10 acres. There reasoning behind this is county planning and population density ‘requirements’ set forth by the county in rural areas. This is severely limiting if you wanted to parcel out your land for business or to sell it off. In some rural areas minimum lot sizes are as large as 20-40 acres. Sometimes you might be able to get a variance and get approved by the county for parceling out your land in smaller lots, but usually it then becomes what they define as a “subdivision” and you must install roads, water management systems (ditches), and submit a plan for your subdivision and where all the “lots” are located. Each lot is then registered with the city, and an address given. You must also go to the county office and get your subdivision approved and voted on by the committee and your neighbors. Yes. Your neighbors have a say about your property and what you are allowed to do with it.
- Water – There must be a water source. This is for sanitation and health. If you’re lucky you have a well of your own and do not need to hookup to city water. Also, there is usually a large fee involved with hooking up to city water. I’ve seen it as high as $15k for some counties. Not everyone has $15k to throw around so it becomes cost prohibitive to hook up to city utilities. Not to mention living off grid is about being self sufficient and not dependent upon others for the basics of life. Some counties require you to be hooked up to city water, period, and they will not budge on that or approve any other source. The best advice in these cases is to move out of that county if you want your freedom to choose where you get your water.
- Power System – This kind of goes without saying. Some counties will not allow you to be disconnected from their utilities. Usually this happens in rural areas closer to town. In town of course, it’s most likely that it’s illegal to disconnect from the public utility system completely. Some counties allow what’s called a grid-tied solar power system. This is a solar system that allows you to sell surplus power that you generate and do not use back to the city. The problem is you’re still paying for electricity if you do not generate enough to run your home. In some cases it’s possible to cut your energy usage down enough to have a surplus, and that surplus will get sold to the utility company at a discounted wholesale rate. It can eliminate your electricity bill completely, or reduce it enough to make it worth it, but this is not really off grid living. Usually, the further you are from the city the better and less restrictive the ordinances and the more likely you will be able to simply power your home or cabin off a solar power system without having to be tied to the grid.
- Septic System – This is a big one! You can’t just dump your septic waste into the ground without a ‘proper septic system’. Usually counties will require you to have a minimum size septic system, the ground must be tested (called a perc test) “…A percolation test (from percolation, colloquially called a perc test) is a test to determine the absorption rate of soil for a septic drain field or “leach field”. The results of a percolation test are required to properly design a septic system…” ~ Wikipedia This means more time and higher costs. Some counties do not require a perc test, but some will require you to use a licensed contractor. Meaning you cannot build or install the septic system yourself. If you do it anyway, without a permit, you will be breaking the law and that makes it illegal. So this puts you in a difficult position where you have to spend more money or not build the septic system at all.
- Livestock – Rural counties usually are ok with some livestock. Cows, pigs, chickens, goats, horses, etc. are all ok on most agriculturally zoned rural land. However, the closer you get to the city, the more restrictions there are. If a property is not zoned for animals, then it’s usually illegal to have them. In most cases a property must be zoned for agricultural use before you are allowed to have any kind of livestock.
- Selling Food From Your Garden – In most counties (due to health and safety reasons) it’s illegal to sell your surplus food from your garden unless you have a permit and health inspection.
Technically speaking, it’s not exactly illegal to live off grid. The problem arrises from overly restrictive zoning and ordinances that disallow certain actions and construction on your own property.
In most places this means that if you want to get a piece of land, place a tent, RV, travel trailer or tiny house on it, and camp there while you build your dream cabin, then it’s most likely illegal to do that.
This unfairly and severely restricts your options, especially if you have a limited budget and can’t afford the permits required to jump through all the legal hoops most municipalities have created in their ordinances.
Counties should add allowances for off grid living and update their ordinances to reflect current technology. Originally, all ordinances were put in place for two main reasons. Health and safety. The other reason could be to generate revenue for the county through permitting and taxes. That’s ok, and fair.
However, it would be nice to update the ordinances to current 21st century based on technological standards and ability that was not available when most of these restrictive ordinances were voted into existence.
The Solution
We have the technology now to live off grid and still be healthy and safe. We can generate our own power. We don’t need a huge house. We don’t need to be hooked up to city water because we can generate our own clean potable drink water. We don’t need to hookup to city sewer systems because we have portable technology that allows us to dispose of our waste much more efficiently than before.
What happens if we lose power indefinitely — foods that require freezing or refrigeration for long term storage are going to go bad? Emergency food storage in advance will be the only way to feed yourself and your family.
Allow Long Term Camping (with a stipulation you must be actively building a dwelling for the duration of the time you are camping): Being able to camp out on your own land while building a tiny house or cabin should be a right and there should be no ordinances which prohibit or restrict the size of dwellings except for maybe when children are present.
Minimum Dwelling Size on a PER PERSON Basis: Perhaps we can petition local counties to add into their current zoning codes and restrictions the ability to live in “small dwellings” between 100 to 500 square feet and or create a 100 square foot rule. For example, if you have 4 people in your family you will need a minimum of 100 square feet per person. meaning your dwelling would be required to be 400 square feet in size. That’s fair for everyone.
Allow Smaller Minimum Lot Sizes in Rural Areas: (Note: some counties already allow this) Change the ordinances in counties which restrict smaller lots, to allow the ability to split a larger property into smaller 1/2 to 1 acre parcels without having to submit and application for a subdivision, put in roads or sewer. Petition counties to change the minimum lot size to 1/2 to 1 acre. Make it easier to parcel larger pieces of land into smaller more manageable parcels. It would automatically produce more revenue in property taxes for the county.
Doing these three things would go a long way to making everyones lives much easier, and it would also generate more revenue for counties and municipalities through the USA.
It just makes sense to update all these outdated and unfairly overly restrictive ordinance which hinder progress and slows down advancement. It brings them into the 21st century and beyond into a brighter future for all.
Our lives have changed, our technology has advanced, and it’s now time for our laws to reflect those changes and allow us to continue to seek our dreams.
We can do this.
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