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Planning & Zoning presents 2024 sustainability report; highlights green energy, lead-line work and brownfield cleanup
Summary
City planning staff and the Waukegan Green Team presented the 2024 sustainability report to the Public Works Committee, highlighting municipal energy aggregation savings, digital permitting paper reductions, solar permitting growth, lead service-line replacements and a completed brownfield cleanup funded by a $400,000 EPA grant.
Rachel Canton of the city's planning and zoning division presented Waukegan's 2024 sustainability report to the Public Works Committee on Feb. 18, detailing progress on energy, water, brownfields, permitting and other initiatives.
Canton said the city launched a municipal electrical aggregation partnership with the Northern Illinois Municipal Electric Collaborative (NIMEC) in 2022, which fixed rates and allowed the city's electricity to be sourced from 100% green energy. Canton estimated the municipal aggregation has saved the city about $300,000 since May 2022 and credited the change with a measured reduction in fossil-fuel–related emissions "equivalent to 9 million pounds of coal burned" over the period cited.
On customer service and waste reduction, planning staff noted the switch to a digital permit system saves roughly 24,000 sheets of paper annually by moving permit processing online. Canton said the city also tracks increased solar development through its permitting portal and holds a SolSmart designation that simplifies solar permitting.
Water-quality work was a major focus. Canton reported that the city has completed roughly 650 lead-service-line replacements to date and launched outreach and a homeowner survey to identify additional suspect lines. Planning staff also briefed the committee on the South Lakefront Brownfields project: the city received a $400,000 U.S. EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant; contractors completed soil testing and soil removal and the city is awaiting final regulatory reports from the Illinois EPA.
The report also highlighted Washington Street access-to-transit improvements (linked to climate and air-quality funding) and noted phase 1 of that program is approved, with potential construction beginning in 2027.
Canton said the 2024 report is posted on the city website and will be distributed to aldermen and the public. The presentation emphasized that the Waukegan Green Team is a volunteer interdepartmental staff group that coordinated the report and related projects.
Committee members thanked Canton for the overview and asked follow-up questions about timing and next steps on specific projects; no formal committee action was required for the presentation.
