In this guide
The question people ask is "can I live in an RV on my land." The question the county answers is something narrower, and the gap between the two is where people get cited.
Almost every county draws a line between an RV parked for recreation and an RV used as a dwelling. Those are two different legal things with two different sets of rules, and the crossing point is usually a number of days. Find that number for your county and most of the rest follows.
What follows is quoted from the actual ordinances, county by county, because the published advice on this topic is unusually bad. One of the counties below has a number that every land blog on the internet gets wrong, and another has a rule so counterintuitive that a normal off-grid setup is out of compliance on day one.
Recreation Versus Habitation, and Why It Is the Whole Game
A county that says nothing about RVs still has an opinion about dwellings. That is the trick. Almost nowhere is it illegal to park a camper on land you own and spend a weekend in it. What is regulated is occupancy over time, because past some threshold the county stops seeing a vehicle and starts seeing a residence, and a residence brings wastewater, water supply, setbacks, addressing and building code with it.
So the useful question is not "are RVs allowed." It is three questions. How many days can I stay without a permit? What permit gets me past that, and what does it require? And is there any path to permanent use, or is that closed?
In most of the counties below, the answer to the third one is that permanent RV living is closed, and the honest version of the plan is an RV as a base camp or as temporary shelter while you build something else.
What the Federal RV Rules Do, and What They Do Not
There is a federal definition of a recreational vehicle, at 24 CFR 3282.15, and people reach for it as though it settles something. It does not settle the thing they want settled.
HUD said so directly in the preamble to the 2018 rule that created the current text: "The regulation of use and occupancy of RVs is the purview of state and local authorities, not HUD." The federal rule decides whether a unit has to be built to the manufactured housing code. It says nothing about whether you may live in it on your parcel. That is the county’s call, every time.
One correction while we are here, because we have repeated the wrong version of it ourselves. The 400 square foot limit on a park model was not eliminated in 2019. It moved. Before January 15, 2019 the number sat in the federal regulation itself and was measured at the largest horizontal projections, so a factory porch counted against it. After that date the regulation defers to the ANSI A119.5 standard, which still sets 400 square feet, but measures gross trailer area in setup mode and excludes the porch. HUD put it plainly: because the standard "sets forth a maximum size of 400 square feet, excluding porches, size will continue to be a factor."
Two consequences worth knowing. A self-propelled motorhome has no size test at all under the federal exemption. And a park model is built as a temporary structure, which some states enforce literally. North Carolina’s Office of State Fire Marshal has written that park models "cannot have any permanent plumbing or mechanical connections" and that "the wheels and axles must remain on the unit at all times" for it to stay classified as temporary. Pull the axles and pour a foundation and you have converted a legal RV into an unpermitted dwelling.
What Real Counties Actually Say
Here are the numbers, pulled from the ordinances. Check the date on each before you rely on it, and call the county, because this is exactly the kind of rule that moves.
| County | Recreational use on your own land | The path to longer |
|---|---|---|
| Mohave County, AZ | 30 cumulative days a year, and no single stay over 14 consecutive days | Special permit for one year during construction with a building permit, six-month extensions. Separately, a renewable one-year permit in A-R and R-E zones |
| Navajo County, AZ | 120 days once per calendar year on a Seasonal RV Permit, renewable once | Temporary RV Permit up to a year, tied to an active building permit |
| Costilla County, CO | 60-day Long-Term RV Camping Permit, capped at 180 days per parcel per 12 months | No path to permanent. The policy says so in capital letters |
| Klamath County, OR | 21 days in any six-month period | Temporary Use Permit after the dwelling building permit issues. $450, then $150 a year |
| Putnam County, FL | No general allowance. Permit only | 60 days during land clearing with no utility hookups, or six months during construction with septic required, extendable once |
| Valencia County, NM | One RV alongside an existing principal dwelling, guests up to 180 days a year | Full dwelling-grade permitting including septic and setbacks |
| Unincorporated Texas | Counties generally have no zoning power, so no occupancy permit exists | Septic permit, floodplain rules and deed restrictions do the work instead |
| Ashe County, NC | No general zoning ordinance. Not addressed | State septic rules and the park model position above |
Three of those deserve a sentence more.
Costilla County is the correction. Nearly every land blog and forum post repeats a 90-day figure for camping there. The county’s own Residential Development Policy says 60-day permits with a 180-day annual cap per parcel, requires the RV be hooked to an approved wastewater system and a permitted well or installed cistern before the permit issues, and states that under no circumstances is an RV to be used as a permanent dwelling. Not one of the sites repeating 90 days is the county.
Navajo County has the rule that catches off-grid buyers. Section 1502.9 reads: "RVs shall be connected to a permanent power source. Usage of generators to power RVs is prohibited." If your plan was a camper, a generator and a couple of panels, that plan is non-compliant in Navajo County before you unhitch. The county also requires the RV sit an additional ten feet off every property line beyond the normal setback, and bars any attached structure, so the deck and the snow shed have to stand on their own feet.
Apache County is the cautionary one, and it is worth understanding as a pattern rather than as a fact about one county. The adopted Apache County zoning ordinance contains no provision governing RV occupancy on a private residential parcel. What circulates online, and ranks well in search, is a Recreational Vehicle Placement Policy with specific day counts and a permit fee. That document appears in a January 2022 Planning and Zoning backup packet, and the commission minutes from the following month record it as tabled and sent to a subcommittee. It was never adopted. We are not publishing its numbers, and neither should anyone else. Call Apache County Planning.
The Rule That Breaks Most Plans: Where the Waste Goes
This is the least known and most decisive part of the topic, so it gets the most space.
You generally cannot just plumb an RV into a septic system. North Carolina’s health department guidance states it outright: "RVs are not allowed to discharge the holding tank waste into an on-site wastewater system unless it has been specifically designed and approved for RV holding tank waste." The reason is chemistry. Ultra-low-flow fixtures plus the deodorizing chemicals people put in a black tank produce waste the guidance classifies as high strength, and if nobody has characterized it, the default assumption is that it is.
Arizona reached the same conclusion independently. An ADEQ policy effective February 2023 says high-strength RV wastewater "must be pretreated before hooking up to a collection system," and names formaldehyde and similar bio-inhibitors as the culprits. Two states, same engineering reality. Treat it as general rather than local.
North Carolina also closes the argument people make about their camper being just a camper: "Individual RVs on separately owned parcels not under common control or RVs that are designed or used as permanent dwelling units are required to meet the same requirements as a dwelling unit."
On emptying a tank onto your own ground, the honest answer is that RV waste is not trash and it is not greywater. It is septage, a separately regulated stream. North Carolina rule explicitly catches the parked long-term RV: wastewater from RVs "that are tied down, blocked up, or that are not relocated on a regular basis, and that are not connected to an approved wastewater system" has to be managed under the septage article. Arizona forbids discharge from a holding vault "to the native soil or land surface" and requires disposal at a treatment facility through a licensed hauler. We found no jurisdiction where dumping a black tank on your own land is lawful.
Holding tanks are legal and they are not a permanent answer. Arizona permits a sewage vault only where a severe site constraint prevents a conventional system, or as a temporary measure if you connect to a sewer or install a real system within two years. It requires a contract with a licensed pumper, forbids discharge to the ground, and requires an alarm at 85 percent of capacity. That two-year clock is the answer to whether you can run a vault indefinitely.
For sizing conversations, North Carolina design flow is 120 gallons per day for a traditional RV site and 175 for a park model, with a maximum of four occupants either way, and a 1,000-gallon minimum tank for one or two RVs.
Greywater is a genuinely different and more permissive question. Arizona allows residential greywater under 400 gallons a day under a general permit with no individual application, provided you meet the conditions. Rules vary widely, so ask about greywater separately rather than assuming it follows the blackwater answer.
Water and Power
Water is the easier half. Hauling and storing potable water in a tank is normal practice on a seasonal site and nobody regulates a water tank the way they regulate a septic system. If you are thinking about a well instead, be aware the well permit may not legally cover serving an RV; Colorado is the clearest example, where the permit type is tied to the use. We wrote up the whole permitting picture in our guide to putting a well on raw land.
Power is where the surprises are. The obvious plan is solar and a generator, and in most places that is fine. In Navajo County it is prohibited, as above. Elsewhere the constraint runs the other direction: a utility will often not set a permanent meter for a site with no permitted structure on it, which pushes you back toward the temporary-permit path or off-grid by default. Mohave County requires a permitted temporary-residence RV to stay roadworthy and bars attached structural additions, which rules out the slow slide from camper to cabin that people drift into.
If you are pricing a grid connection, get it in writing before you close. Utilities do not publish line extension costs, and on a long pull the power can cost more than the land. What utilities actually cost to bring in goes through it.
Setting the Site
Assume for a moment the legal side is settled and you are allowed to be there. Here is the order that saves rework.
Setting the Site
Confirm the day count and the permit in writing.
Call the planning office, get the section number, and write down who you spoke to. This is the step people skip and the only one that can result in a citation.
Solve waste before anything else.
Pump-out contract, permitted vault, or an approved system designed for RV waste. Everything else on this list is easy by comparison.
Pick the pad for drainage first, view second.
Water moving under a parked RV in spring is a bigger problem than a mediocre outlook. Look at where the ground sheds.
Get gravel and a level pad in before you tow.
Leveling on soft ground is how jacks sink and frames twist. A few loads of gravel is cheap next to a bent frame.
Check access for the vehicles that come later.
Not just your tow rig. A pump truck and a delivery truck need turning room and a surface that holds weight when wet.
Plan for wind and sun.
Orient for shade in summer and against the prevailing wind. Awnings are the first casualty on an exposed site.
Sort mail and an address separately.
Many counties will not assign a 911 address without a driveway or a permitted structure, which affects deliveries and emergency response.
What Buyers Get Wrong
- Assuming no zoning means no rules. In unincorporated Texas the county usually cannot issue an RV occupancy permit, but septic permitting, floodplain rules and recorded deed restrictions all still bind, and covenants do most of the work zoning does elsewhere.
- Trusting a number from a land blog. The Costilla County figure that circulates is wrong, and the Apache County document that ranks in search was tabled and never adopted.
- Planning to plumb the RV into a septic tank. Usually not permitted without a system designed for it, in both of the states that have written guidance on it.
- Assuming a generator is always fine. Navajo County prohibits it and requires permanent power.
- Reading a federal RV definition as permission to live in one. HUD says use and occupancy are the local authority’s call, in those words.
- Stripping the axles or pouring a foundation. That converts a legal RV into an unpermitted dwelling, and North Carolina says so explicitly.
- Missing the sequence in construction-based permits. In Klamath County there is no temporary use permit until the dwelling building permit has issued, so without it the ceiling is 21 days.
- Forgetting the permit clock. Costilla permits run 60 days and must be refiled. Arizona vaults run two years. Mohave construction permits run a year with extensions.
What This Looks Like on One of Our Parcels
We sell rural land on owner financing, and use rights start the day you sign rather than at payoff. Bringing an RV out, camping, running portable solar, hauling water, setting a fire ring and marking your boundaries are all day-one activities on our contracts. Can I use my land while I am still paying for it covers that line in detail.
What waits for title is the permanent infrastructure: a drilled well, a septic system, a foundation, a framed structure, permanent electrical. We hold title until the parcel is paid off and the deed is prepared and recorded in your name at payoff. There is no prepayment penalty, so the wait is as long as you choose to make it.
None of that changes your county’s day count. Our contract governs what we allow. The ordinance governs what the county allows, and it is the stricter of the two that applies. If you are weighing a parcel specifically as an RV base camp, ask your Land Specialist what the county requires before you sign, not after. Parcels that suit that use are gathered on the camping and recreation land page.
Down payment is typically $150 to $175 on most parcels, the monthly is usually around $150 with most parcels in a $150 to $250 range, and terms run 60 to 96 months with some as short as 48. There is a document fee of $250 on most parcels, running up toward $500 on higher-priced ground, shown on the listing. No credit check.
County RV rules are the most inconsistent set of rules in rural land, and the published advice about them is the least reliable. Two counties a state line apart can differ by a factor of five on the same question.
So do not take a number from an article, including this one, and build a plan on it. Take the section number, call the planning office, and ask what applies to your parcel this year. That phone call is free and it is the whole job.
