Iroquois County’s Policy and Procedure Committee approved a motion to have the treasurer establish new checking accounts to hold renewable energy deposits and discussed revisions to the county’s renewable energy ordinances.

Committee members said the new account(s) will hold deposits related to solar and wind projects and that details about whether to use one account or multiple subaccounts will be decided later. The treasurer recommended using the term “interest-bearing account” rather than “money market” in ordinance and application language; the committee approved the change to standardize wording.

The tax and zoning director reported the committee will return revised solar and wind ordinances to the county board for action. Members discussed a separate battery ordinance, which the committee agreed should be created as a new ordinance and proceed through the zoning board of appeals for a public hearing and recommendation before returning to the tax and zoning committee and then the county board.

The committee also discussed site-specific public hearing locations for renewable energy proposals and said hearings might be held in communities where proposed projects would be sited.

No final vote on ordinance text was recorded in committee; committee members said the revised solar and wind texts and the new battery ordinance will be forwarded through the county’s zoning review and public hearing process.

A committee member noted state-level changes made by the state's attorney altered the definition of “primary structure” in draft battery language and prompted a review of related definitions in the solar and wind drafts. The committee also discussed adding a checklist to the wind ordinance similar to what is used for solar applications.

Committee members said they anticipate returning the revised ordinances to the county board for a formal vote once the zoning board of appeals completes its public hearings and issues recommendations.