Iroquois County panel recommends approval of solar variances with strict drainage and safety conditions

An Iroquois County hearing on Oct. 29, 2025, ended with the zoning advisory panel recommending approval of variances and conditional‑use permits for a set of community solar projects, subject to roughly 20 conditions aimed at protecting drainage, requiring vegetative screening and ensuring emergency and decommissioning safeguards.

The recommendation followed hours of testimony from adjacent landowners, project representatives and county staff. Landowner Rodney Gustafson raised the hearing’s most sustained concerns, saying the developer’s ground‑penetrating radar (GPR) survey had limited penetration and may have missed existing subsurface drain tile. “The GPR acquisition was completed on 10/29/2025,” Gustafson said, and he told the panel the data showed poor penetration—“less than 2 feet”—in places and that Westwood (the surveyor) warned it could not warrant the presence or absence of tile beyond the instrument’s depth or in unanalyzed areas.

Gustafson also pointed to owner‑supplied maps and a 2020 digital image from the drain‑tile contractor, arguing some lines outside the project boundary reflect privately installed tile that could be…