Consider investigating small rural communities with lax building codes for homesteading. Many of these communities are in slow decline and eager for new community members. Keep an eye out for properties for sale and related community information online. Many properties come on the market when seniors pass away and children want to live in big cities. Look for areas with good water and established gardens with good soil.
no codes
Zoning Destroys Neighborhood Business
Travel the world and you’ll see vibrant, beautiful, old world neighborhoods where small local businesses are integrated with residential homes. I call these ‘mixed use areas’. This is typically the way towns were set up for many years. In the US and some other western countries you see a stark separation between residential and business areas. This is because zoning regulations usually prohibit mom and pop businesses or any businesses at all in residential areas.
Areas With Few or No Codes: Ozark Plateau
We’ve had a lively discussion for years here on our Natural Building Blog about the best places to live with few or no building codes that make it easy to build a home out of low cost natural materials and create a homestead. In my opinion the Ozarks is a top choice for natural building and homesteading in the US due to many factors.
Best Places to Live with Minimal Building Codes: Lewis County, TN
I’ve been doing a series of articles recently on the best places to live in North America that have few or no building codes. I’m asking readers to send us their recommendations. Today’s article is the fifth installment of the series. I suggest moving to an area with minimal building codes to greatly reduce the cost of construction as well as escape many of the problems in urban areas such as high taxes and crime. For more on this topic, see Counties with Few or No Building Codes
Area in Wisconsin with Few or No Codes
The following comment left by a reader got me thinking about publishing a few blog posts about areas in the US with few or no building codes that allow do-it-yourself alternative building with earthbags, straw bales and local wood, and homesteading. As we’ve said many times here, building in areas with codes can skyrocket the construction costs ten-fold, which essentially wipes out the savings of using alternative materials. That probably explains why our blog page Counties with Few or No Building Codes has always been our most popular page.
Max, Nebraska: No Local Government
We often suggest moving to rural areas with few or no building codes to cut housing costs and red tape. This video sums up how one small town in Nebraska operates with no local government. The narrator (McCook’s Mr. Bill or Donze52) tells it like it is.
“More government means less freedom & more taxes – that simple.”