The Peoria County Land Use Committee voted unanimously to remove a numerical limit on consecutive building permits from the county’s Unified Development Ordinance.

Andrew, a county planning staff member, told the committee the text amendment (KCBA20250058) deletes language in Chapter 20, Article 3, Section 3.2 that had limited any single project to two permits before requiring a zoning-board-of-appeals variance. He said a 2022 variance denial was later appealed to circuit court, and “the circuit court recently ruled that we could not impose a numerical restriction on the number of permits, and then require [an applicant] to get a variance,” because sequencing issues fall under the building code rather than zoning.

The committee’s action removes the limitation from the zoning ordinance; Andrew said the county intends to bring a separate amendment to Chapter 12 (the building and property maintenance code) to address successive permits. He described options under consideration — including shortening permit timelines and increasing fees for repeat permits — but said specific changes will come later after internal research.

Committee members asked whether fees now increase automatically when applicants take out a new permit; Andrew said current charges are calculated based on the remaining scope of work (square footage, mechanical, plumbing, electrical) and do not automatically rise with each new permit. He also noted that many extension requests come from homeowners acting as their own general contractors.

The committee voted to place the zoning text amendment on the floor and then approved it unanimously. No public comment was offered on the amendment during the meeting.

The committee’s next steps include drafting the Chapter 12 amendment and returning with proposed fee or time-frame changes for further review.