The Sangamon County Zoning and Land Use Committee discussed ways to regain more local control over renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind farms, in light of a recent state law that restricts authority of municipal governments to veto such developments. At the June 18 meeting, lawyers gave the committee a laundry list of reasons to take caution with a proposal to wholly rezone agricultural parcels of land, though an amendment was approved that could give the county more say over renewable energy projects.
The proposal by District 7 board member Craig Hall, who represents the area where the Double Black Diamond Solar Farm opened last year and where the CyrusOne data center project is slated to be built, attempts to circumvent the state’s latest laws that prevent local governments from having stricter authority on zoning for renewable energy projects. It would create 1.5 miles of buffer real estate around municipalities through rezoning agricultural parcels as residential.
A 2023 law specifically “requires counties to allow commercial, utility-scale solar and wind energy conversion systems to be sited in areas zoned for agricultural or industrial use,” according to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign fact page. “A county can have more lax requirements than called for in state law, but it cannot have more restrictive requirements,” though no mention of rezoning land so it’s not sited for agricultural or industrial use is outlined.
Daniel Hamilton, a partner at the Springfield-based law firm of Brown, Hay and Stephens, told the committee that such a proposal would be “high risk with low certainty” of success as the resolution could open the county to lawsuits. He also said enacting zoning overhaul would be costly and cumbersome.
“There’s likely litigation, likely liability and procedurally it would be a process to bring it to fruition,” Hamilton said.
The proposal would require proper zoning petitions (and a number of subsequent notices) for every parcel of agricultural land to be rezoned, in addition to necessitating land evaluation assessments for every impacted parcel, he said. Additionally, it would almost certainly change individuals’ property tax bills and the county’s property tax revenue.
“Because the property is agricultural, the ZBA would also run the land value evaluation and site assessment report for each parcel, and take that into account,” he said.
Those changes demand “a lot of administrative burden that the county would need time to plan for and implement if it wanted to do that. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, I’m just laying out that it would have to be done in a very planned and coordinated format.”
Appellate courts at odds
In early June, the state’s Fourth District Appellate Court, which includes Sangamon County, issued a ruling that grants counties “some discretion” when considering commercial renewable energy projects. The case was filed by two solar companies seeking to develop nearly 150 acres of land in Winnebago County.
The appellate court interpreted a section of the state’s 2023 law about renewable energy project zoning as having “language (that) allows counties to codify and consider factors not expressly enumerated in the section and that give them some discretion when approving or denying applications. Accordingly, the trial court properly dismissed plaintiffs’ complaints” asking for a court order to grant project permits.
That decision disputed a March ruling from the state’s Third District Appellate Court, which ordered Grundy County to issue permits for a pair of commercial solar projects. Grundy County plans to appeal the decision, according to the Morris Herald-News.
The Zoning and Land Use Committee approved an amendment that takes into consideration the Fourth District’s ruling and moves the process for renewable energy projects from a siting approval permit to a conditional permitted use.
“The ordinance, really, is going to be in line with state law but it also is going to be a little more in line with the Winnebago case that was just decided,” said Trustin Harrison, Sangamon County’s zoning administrator.
Hamilton, the local attorney, said there are other tools for county and municipal leaders to consider, mainly the idea that a county’s comprehensive zoning plan would be “a strong planning tool that could be used to help provide insulation to municipalities around their borders.
“If the county were to adopt a revised comprehensive plan that incorporated the different factors that impact areas around municipalities, that could be used by Regional Planning when making their recommendation and by the County Board when making any final vote to justify the approval or denial of any particular petition,” he said, so long as the plan “states that an area is reserved for future residential growth or future industrial growth.”
Hamilton also said that local municipalities and townships, many of which have leaders in support of increased local control, could “enter into pre-annexation agreements with property owners… if they’re located within a mile and a half of the municipality, and that would allow them to have the protection of being within the municipality for their particular parcel.”