Iroquois County prepares ordinances and hearings for wind, solar and battery rules while planners flag Department of Agriculture notice and Ameren floodplain t

Tax and planning staff told the Iroquois County Board on April 3 that the county will move forward with a schedule of hearings and ordinance postings for proposed wind, solar and battery regulations and that other planning matters — a late Department of Agriculture notice about a farm expansion in the Dahlgren area and a floodplain compliance dispute involving Ameren — are active.

Rick Geiger, who presented the tax and planning update, said attorneys are preparing resolutions the county committee will present to the county board so the board can refer the proposals to the zoning board of appeals for a public hearing. He said the county expects a ZBA hearing in the afternoon of May 5 (target date) and that the county board could adopt ordinances at its May 13 meeting if the prescribed notice timelines are met. Geiger described the process as a sequence of actions: county board resolution → ZBA hearing → committee recommendation → county board action.

Geiger said county attorneys advised caution when drafting ordinance language to avoid exposure to legal challenges under state statute: "we don't wanna, be close to the, edge of the state statute that we get caused to have legal action against this, so they're gonna be safe than sorry on the ordinance side," he said. He also said draft ordinances and related documents will be posted to the county website and published in the newspaper following county board action.

Separately, Geiger said the county received a late notice from the Illinois Department of Agriculture about a planned expansion of a swine operation in the Dahlgren area that carries a deadline for the county to request a public hearing; Geiger said the county received the notice too late to research it fully before the meeting and that the state deadline for requesting a hearing was April 10 (as read in the meeting). He said the county can request a hearing to ensure transparency but had not yet made a final decision at the meeting.

Planning staff also reported a pending dispute with Ameren over a floodplain ordinance violation. Geiger said the county attorney had exchanged points with Ameren's attorneys and that county engineer Scott Durecki was reviewing engineering items Ameren had raised; Geiger said staff planned another meeting to resolve points of contention and decide what the county can require.

No formal ordinances were adopted at the April 3 meeting; the board was briefed on the schedule and on next steps for posting notices, holding the ZBA hearing and returning recommendations to the county board.