If I own my land, why can’t I build an earthship?

How building codes and zoning laws slow down advancements in sustainable architecture.

By: Emily Downey

If you’re like me, you may have seen some news recently about how engineers, architects, and builders are utilizing new (and old) building techniques to respond to the challenges presented by a changing climate. Be it fire resilient design in California[1], integration of green technology such as solar and water reclamation[2], or the proliferation of tiny homes[3], many are turning to smarter and more energy efficient methods when it comes to building their dream home.

But innovation often comes with legal challenges. One of the most poignant examples has been the difficulty faced by architects in California having to adapt fire resistant designs to existing building codes.[4] While some states are taking measures to attempt to ease the way for green design and face popular support, progress can be slow.[5] This is partially because building codes and zoning laws are highly localized, meaning that broad measures often do not address more granular issues like City ordinances and neighborhood covenants and restrictions.[6] To see how these challenges can be overcome, we can look to lessons learned from an oddly named pioneer of the green home movement: the earthship.

What is an earthship?

Earthships are the invention of New Mexico architect Michael Reynolds, who built the first earthship in the 1970s as a way to solve problems with both rubbish accumulation and affordable housing.[7] He did this by doing something novel and strange—building a house out of garbage.[8] While a garbage home doesn’t initially sound appealing, Reynolds’ design soon amassed a following, especially in areas around Taos, New Mexico.[9] Reynolds pioneered a building technique using earth, tires, and “bricks” made of discarded cans to create hyper-modern edifices that are virtually indestructible and come with a myriad of green perks.[10] The homes allow occupants to live entirely or almost entirely off grid, are super-efficient to heat and cool, and come with novel water reclamation systems in place.[11] The homes can also be affordable, as they emphasize the use of local and often discarded materials and provide for onsite food production[12]

So why aren’t there more earthships?

Earthships are difficult to legally build in the United States. Earthship advocates have had to deal with an uphill legal battle from the beginning.[13] In New Mexico, Michael Reynolds spearheaded the Sustainable Development Testing Site Act, which passed in 2007 and allows counties to designate specific rural areas for the testing and development of sustainable technologies and concepts in a state which historically used large tracts of land as a nuclear testing ground.[14] In Reynolds’ words, the Act allows him to “transcend” the laws already in place to carve out a place for earthships and other new building methods.[15]

Additionally, each earthship is a unique structure. Some are built like whimsical sandcastles with jewel-like recycled glass windows, while others blend into the landscape. But neighborhoods in the United States have long favored “cookie cutter” houses, and the abundance of Homeowners’ Associations (“HOAs”) and covenanted neighborhoods disincentivize the building of structures that don’t fit the mold.[16] To get around this obstacle, homeowners have elected to build in rural areas that typically lack covenants and restrictions.[17]

Other issues include the difficulty in insuring and financing these unique homes.[18] Mortgage lenders rely on comparable listings (“comps”) to accurately assess the value of a home, and earthships often don’t reliably compare to other homes in a given area.[19] This makes it nearly impossible to get a conventional mortgage on an earthship, so prospective builders and buyers must either seek out alternative forms of financing or pay in cash on hand.[20] This makes these homes—meant to be affordable—into expensive enterprises that are also a gamble on the resale market.[21] An earthship is a home for life by necessity.

How do earthships get built?

There are two ways—adapt to local building codes or do like Reynolds and find a way to circumvent them. Currently, you can obtain a permit to build an earthship in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, and Virginia.[22] But this still requires navigating a tricky legal landscape. For example, Virginia passed Green Development Zone legislation in 2017 allowing towns, cities and counties to establish green development zones by ordinance, and providing for regulatory flexibility in those zones.[23] However, outside of these zones, localities have no flexibility outside of the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (“USBC”), and few localities have gone forward to designate Green Development Zones.[24] Additionally, permits for things like onsite solar panels can rack up costs. Prospective earthship builders may have to do all of the permitting work themselves, and must buy the panels outright if they wish to avoid dealing with utility companies.[25]

The takeaway lesson?

Innovative architecture can be costly and time consuming, and it can require a lot of creativity and legal maneuvering. But these designs show us that incorporating eco-friendly building practices can be done. “Self-sustaining power and warmth and electricity through solar panels, roof water capture and reuse, this is the future,” says Kim Shanahan, former head of the Santa Fe Area Homebuilders Association and expert in the field of green homebuilding.[26] In Shanahan’s words, it is “not necessarily tires in walls, but all the other principles that Mike Reynolds has taught us about what a house can and should be.”[27] And even when law is slow to catch up, a little flexibility can go a long way for the advancement of sustainable design.

Image link:

https://pixabay.com/vectors/ufo-spaceship-alien-sci-fi-8759621/

[1] Rob Enderle, Building Back a Better Los Angeles With Fire-Resistant Homes, TechNewsWorld (Jan. 20, 2025, 5:00 AM), https://www.technewsworld.com/story/building-back-a-better-los-angeles-with-fire-resistant-homes-179541.html.

[2]See, e.g., Rachel Estabrook, Want to recycle your own water at home? A new proposal could make that easier in Colorado,  Colo. Pub. Radio (Mar. 29, 2024, 2:58 PM), https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/29/new-proposal-could-make-in-home-recycling-graywater-in-colorado-easier/ (water reclamation) ; see also Paul Dashevsky, Integrating Solar Panels into Home Design, GreatBuildz, https://www.greatbuildz.com/blog/integrating-solar-panels-into-home-design/ (last visited Mar. 15, 2025) (solar panels).

[3] See, e.g., Tiny Homes and Their Effect on the Environment, Keep Mass. Beautiful (Nov. 10, 2021), https://keepmassbeautiful.org/news-events/the-kmb-blog/overview.html/article/2021/11/10/tiny-homes-and-their-effect-on-the-environment.

[4] See Nate Berg, No shrubs and lots of concrete: This is what a fire resistant house looks like, Fast Co. (Jan. 15, 2025), https://www.fastcompany.com/91260499/no-shrubs-and-lots-of-concrete-this-is-what-a-fire-resistant-house-looks-like (last visited Mar. 16, 2025) (discussing how architects have to adapt fire-resistant designs to meet existing building codes which can result in fire damage).

[5] See, e.g., Exec. Order No. 4-25, Gavin Newsom, Jan. 12, 2025 (https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/EO-N-4-25-Rebuilding-Final-signed.pdf) (advocating for streamlining building codes to advance rebuilding of fire-resistant homes after 2025 California wildfires); see also Liam Dillon, Most Angelenos back tougher building codes, restrictions on homebuilding in wildfire zones, poll finds, LA Times (Mar. 12, 2025, 3:00 AM), https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-12/most-angelenos-back-tougher-building-codes-restrictions-on-homebuilding-in-wildfire-zones-poll-finds (demonstrating that a majority of Los Angeles residents support fire-resistant building design and strengthening building codes to make home more fire-resistant).

[6] Danielle Changala, Note: Legal Impediments to Sustainable Architecture and Green Building Design, 14 Vt. J. Env’t. L. 611, 619.

[7] Earthship History, Earthship Biotecture, https://earthship.com/earthship-history/ (last visited Mar. 16, 2025).

[8] Id.

[9] Alexandra Talty, Are Earthship Homes the Answer?, Atmos (Aug. 11, 2022), https://atmos.earth/earthship-homes-taos-sustainable-off-the-grid-living/.

[10] Melissa Brock, Everything to Know About Earthship Homes, RocketHomes: Blog (July 5, 2024),  https://www.rockethomes.com/blog/home-buying/earthship-homes.

[11] Id.

[12] Roy Oppenheim, Earthships: Sustainable Alternatives to Traditional Housing, Weston Title & Escrow: Weston Title News (Jan. 18, 2022), https://westontitle.com/2022/01/earthships-sustainable-alternatives-to-traditional-housing/.

[13]Off the Cuff, Earthships – America’s Off-Grid Desert Community, YouTube (July 2, 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgUkjbMhF18 (interviewing Michael Reynolds: “We have to register every building site as a waste dump…[i]t is still harder to get a permit for a sustainable, absolutely off-the-grid building than it is for a framed cracker box.”).

[14] Id.; N.M. Stat. Ann. § 71-8-1 (West 2007).

[15]Earthship Biotecture, The Grid: Laws, Regulations and Permits for Off-Grid Earthships, YouTube (June 3, 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f628vW-N_Y.

[16] New Construction and HOA Governance: A Basic Guide, Build Review (Jan. 27, 2023), https://www.build-review.com/new-construction-and-hoa-governance-a-basic-guide/.

[17] PBS NewsHour, New Mexico’s ‘Earthships’ Offer Unique Model for Living Off the Grid, YouTube (June 20, 2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ZTiocr3LU; see also Owner Builders Unite, Top 5 Things to Know Before You Build an Earthship, YouTube (Feb. 4, 2023), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mETruJYTZME.

[18] See supra note 10.

[19] Id.

[20] Earthship Pros and Cons, Ministry of Architecture, https://theministryofarchitecture.com/earthships/earthship-pros-cons/#:~:text=The%20butterfly%20roofs%2C%20especially%2C%20WILL,to%20live%20in%20these%20homes (last visited Mar. 16, 2025).

[21] Id.

[22]linux.poet, Where Can I Get a Permit for an Earthship Home?, PermittingTalk (Oct. 9, 2023), https://www.permittingtalk.com/threads/where-can-i-get-a-permit-for-an-earthship-home.4876/.

[23] Va. Code Ann. § 58.1-3854 (2017).

[24] See, e.g., Matthew J. Allman et al, The Shifting Landscape of “Green Building” in Virginia, Venable LLP (July 15, 2024), https://www.venable.com/insights/publications/2024/07/the-shifting-landscape-of-green-building-in (explaining that significant steps are being taken to establish green development zones in Arlington County and the City of Alexandria); see also Nicholas V. Cumings & Lauren G. Riley, Arlington County Approves Update to Green Building Incentive Policy, Walsh Colucci Lubeley & Walsh (Dec. 18, 2020), https://thelandlawyers.com/arlington-green-building-incentive-policy-update/; see also Green Development & Sustainability: Letting the Sunshine In, Business Facilities (April 22, 2019), https://businessfacilities.com/green-development-sustainability-letting-the-sunshine-in/ (reporting that Fauquier County was the first to establish a green development zone in Virginia).

[25] See Pros and Cons of Off-Grid Solar, SouthFace Solar & Electric, https://southfacesolar.com/solar-blog/pros-and-cons-of-off-grid-solar/#:~:text=Self%2Dsufficiency%20%E2%80%93%20Off%2Dgrid,electric%20grid%20doesn’t%20reach (last visited Mar. 16, 2025).

[26] See supra note 17.

[27] Id.