Anna Ziegler, representing the McLean County Farm Bureau, told the Land Use & Transportation Committee on Dec. 2 that the county's final draft Strategic Land Use Plan appears to declare "infill development" a priority without showing mapped infill areas. "A picture is worth 1,000 words," Ziegler said, arguing that if infill is not shown on the plan map, "it doesn't seem like it's a priority."

Ziegler said the final draft shows a large amount of land that could be converted away from agricultural use if the plan guides future decisions. She told the committee the draft indicates "more than 20,000 acres in the county as a whole would be converted away from agricultural use and within the 1.5-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction of Bloomington and Normal, it would be more than 14,000 acres." She characterized those figures as a policy concern and contrasted them with the county's largest approved solar farm to date, which she said is about 2,500 acres. These numbers were presented to the committee as claims by the Farm Bureau representative and were not independently verified at the meeting.

Ziegler also criticized the plan's direction to "refer to the City of Bloomington and the Town of Normal comprehensive plans" for infill prioritization, saying those municipal plans are among the documents the county plan is intended to supersede. She and the Farm Bureau asked that the county incorporate the municipalities' tiered infrastructure-based system (tier 1/tier 2/tier 3) into the county plan to provide clearer guidance on where infrastructure already supports development. "It doesn't seem like we're prioritizing infill development," she said.

County planning staff acknowledged the plan is in final draft form and noted changes in the final draft, including a more detailed visualization of potential land-use changes and the inclusion of a YWCA outreach report documenting public engagement. Staff said the McLean County Regional Planning Commission (MCRPC) intends to receive and file the completed document at its next Commission meeting; after it is received and filed, the plan will be available for local-government review and consideration for adoption.

What happens next: MCRPC will receive and file the final draft at a forthcoming Commission meeting, and local governments will be able to review the plan for possible adoption or to use it as guidance in local planning decisions. The Farm Bureau's concerns about map-based infill prioritization and the acreage figures raised at the meeting will be part of the public record for those reviews.