Off Grid friendly counties in KS? (Lawrence, Shawnee: sale, co-ops, attorneys)

[glockyouup]

I am looking to buy some property and build a small off grid homestead. 10 acres +/- with a 600-800 Sq ft earth bermed home, composting toilet, solar panels, water well, chickens, veggie garden and all that stuff. I do not want to be connected to the electrical grid or water grid.

If anyone has any info on which counties are the best for what I want I'd appreciate all the info!

Preferably near Miami County area as that is where I work. Thanks !

[Mattks]

I know that home would not be allowed here in Shawnee county. You need to check with Miami county on zoning regulations. My county has a minimum house size of, I believe 800 sq ft. If you have plans for your home take them to a county inspector and have them look over it.

Kansas has somewhat strict building codes and land regulations, but I've read that going off-grid is possible here. There's a few off grid communities around the state.

[AnywhereElse]

Check with the individual counties, and not the realtors. You could even start by going to the county websites and seeing if they have the codes/zoning online as some do.

I would also price the cost of driving a well and ask around about drought in the past being prepared to haul water in for your needs, and that gets expensive. I would definitely look into collecting rain water when available and storing it.

I was in SE KS for a season where there was basically no rain to speak of. There were no veggies coming out of the gardens, water and grain had to be hauled in through the summer for livestock. It hit the Amish very hard.

[cattalk1]

Paola/Osawatomie Area has a lot of nice deals, as well as good deals south toward Garnett. Cannot speak of situation in nearby Missouri...Would skip the Franklin County area from Ottawa all the way to Lawrence. There is really dirty scam running with dirty cops and court. Is so bad, the professionals are abandoning home and career to leave only to be bothered for money/labor for decade sometimes after meeting the wrong people running an event center/religious commune over there....Would not get involved in New Age, unofficial Native American religious stuff, Yoga, Reiki or Green/Permiculture/Farmers market anything around these areas as their members & owner lay in wait trying to find new wallets to raid after meeting you or new person invites you to country property nearby for event or retreat. None of the attorneys are defending victims, just told to move as far away as you can....Sell a house cheap in this situation after talking about it, could be sued btw.

Tax delinquency sale is always good opportunity in Kansas, get title in 90 days. But could be possible to be sued out of it for 5 years possibly...The attorneys are cagey on this so is worse when you move to new town where you don't know the big boys, scammers, thugs and predators....Many little communities can be so screwed up with dirty cops, is like a different planet every time you change counties. Quiet people who just watch the 'drama' to figure it all out and didn't bring a lot of stuff to get ruined fair best. Some little places run a pretty disgusting testing or intro for new ones...Would especially agree if you met that Franklin County mess...One of the worst things I even saw in KC just short of the gang killings of mentally ill workers & their families covered up by the cops as suicides in poorer parts of KC.

[elkotronics]

One of the worst things I even saw in KC just short of the gang killings of mentally ill workers & their families covered up by the cops as suicides in poorer parts of KC.

That is just sick. I'm outta here soon. I'll be getting a job somewhere out of state or somewhere else in MO soon. KC is not all bad - there's a lot of good. For a large city it's pretty cool.

[TedH71]

Kansas as a whole is not really interested in promoting off grid stuff mainly because the electricity co-ops and companies know they will lose business so those people who are buying the solar stuff are being taxed very heavily and they have to jump through a lot of hoops just to get it started. I also believe the companies are requiring those people who are doing solar to still have direct electricity hook ups to the electricity grid "just in case" and the companies will continue to monitor people who are using solar in hopes that they can force them to go back on grid. There was a small rebate in the past but that has vanished. Earth homes are the last thing they'll ever accept. The whole state has had lots of new building codes established maybe 3 or 5 years ago so....the nearest thing I would think they accept are the straw built homes. However with this state being a tornado prone state, I wouldn't recommend building anything without a strong basement system built in. Lots of rural areas have heavy meth activity unfortunately so you would have to be cautious to having neighbors. It's a lot worse in Oklahoma from what I've seen.