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County counsel: current siting laws limit local control; board members consider legislative response after Utica Solar vote
Summary
After the County Board approved the Utica Solar petition, county legal counsel and board members discussed limits on local authority under state siting laws and the possibility of pursuing legislative change in Springfield; Doug Stockley said legislation this session may already address the issue.
Following a previous County Board vote on the Utica Solar petition, legal counsel and several members of the LaSalle County Zoning Board of Appeals discussed the effect of state siting laws on local land-use authority and suggested pursuing remedies through the legislature.
Mark Anderson, legal counsel for the ZBA, told the board that recent state siting rules reduce counties’ ability to block or condition large renewable-energy siting when the petition meets statutory criteria. “I don’t think there’s anyone in this room or that room that is in favor of the laws, the siting laws, that we’re currently suffering from,” Anderson said. He added that, in his legal view, when statutory criteria are met a petition “shall” be approved, and that the proper venue for changing that framework is at the state level: “The proper place to fix it isn’t here … around the Springfield area.”
Anderson also described how the county process still provides a forum for citizens to raise concerns and for petitioners to agree to additional conditions during hearings even when state law limits denial. “I think it gives the members of the public who have concerns the ability to speak to those issues … and then having a chance to look the petitioners in the eyes and put them to the test when they say they wanna be good neighbors,” he said.
County Board member Doug Stockley responded that legislation this session could change the statutory language: “There already is legislation this session to roll it back… the language for wind and solar to previous language. So, we’ll see where that goes and possibly we can jump on that legislation,” Stockley said. Several board members suggested the county consider a formal resolution or coordinated approach with other counties asking the General Assembly to revisit the siting statutes.
No formal action was taken at the hearing; the discussion was recorded as part of the ZBA’s report on prior County Board applications. The ZBA chair and counsel emphasized that board members may legally be obliged to approve petitions that meet statutory standards, even if they disagree with the policy outcome, and recommended pursuing legislative change as the proper remedy.
