The Land Use Committee recommended a one-year extension for Coal City Solar CS1 and approved a minor site-layout modification for CS2 at its Sept. 23 meeting; the petitioner withdrew the extension request for CS3. The actions were intended to align permitting, interconnection and construction schedules across multiple neighboring projects.

Frank Mintz, representing Coal City Solar, told the committee the developer is coordinating interconnection agreements with Commonwealth Edison and has financed long-lead equipment orders to "safe-harbor" federal tax credits. He said statutory-agency reviews (including Army Corps and endangered-species clearances) delayed the schedule but that the projects are approaching final site-development readiness.

For CS2, the developer proposed a small change that adds an existing access road into the project’s limit of work for efficiency; the committee approved that minor modification and confirmed it falls within the original authorized footprint. The petitioner withdrew the early-extension request for CS2 and CS3 after staff and legal counsel advised the committee about constraints in county code related to early renewals of special-use permits.

Why it matters: The approved extension preserves the developer’s ability to complete final engineering and permitting without reapplying for a new special-use permit; the minor CS2 layout change clarifies access and construction logistics for work already inside the permitted envelope.

Key technical notes provided at the meeting
- Interconnection agreements: Developers said interconnection (ComEd) work is advanced and that ICAs were executed for some projects.
- Environmental clearances: Developers reported receiving no-permit-required findings from some federal/state agencies and an ITA (interconnection technical assessment) for endangered-turtle protections for at least one site.

Next steps: The committee’s recommendations and approvals will be forwarded to the county board as applicable; developers will continue engineering responses and finalize site-development permits.

Ending: With the extension for CS1 and the CS2 layout tweak approved, Coal City Solar said it expects coordinated construction in 2026 provided financing and remaining permits proceed as planned.