Land Use committee forwards updated LISA scoring to County Board and debates data-center and contractor-registration policy

The LaSalle County Land Use Committee on Feb. 4 voted to send an updated Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LISA/LESA) scoring ordinance to the full County Board and discussed separate tracks for data-center rules and contractor-registration outreach.

Vicky, representing soil and water/NRCS partners, said the draft is largely finalized and asked the committee to approve minor format and wording updates plus one substantive change: when a special use does not require public sewer or water, it will score zero on the public sewer/water proximity measure to avoid inflating scores for remote uses. "It was honestly pretty minor on the site assessment side of it… the major change is when we have special uses that do not need public services that are out, away from cities… we added at the bottom where it would score 0 points," Vicky said. Committee members agreed the update should go to the County Board as an ordinance; the motion to forward passed by voice/roll call.

Committee members also discussed contractor registration and outreach to ensure contractors receive notices when building codes change. Brian (land-use staff) said newer permit applications capture contractor contact information and suggested extracting that data or maintaining a county spreadsheet and posting it to the county website. The health department already requires septic contractors to register and provide copies of state licenses.

On broader text amendments, members reviewed sample ordinances received from the county organization and said wind, solar and energy-storage (ESS) updates could be bundled, while data-center regulations may need separate, more detailed treatment because of concerns about water usage, power demand and grid impacts. Brian reported sample ordinances and webinars (for example, Illinois Extension "resilient community" webinars) are being circulated for committee review; staff will distribute the county organization sample ordinance to members for comparison with Brian’s draft.

What comes next: the committee will forward the LISA scoring updates to the County Board as an ordinance and continue to refine text amendments for renewable energy and data centers with additional materials and sample ordinances provided to members prior to the next meeting.