Board to seek public comment on model pre-permit hearing language after attorney cautions on process

The Oliver County Planning and Zoning Board voted to move a model ordinance — drafted from McLean County language — to public hearing that would require preliminary public hearings by the county commissioners within 60 days of receiving a proposed project map.

The draft language would allow the county to review site locations and create avoidance zones before a formal permitting decision. The board added an amendment instructing staff to attach clarifying literature defining what the county will consider a "large" or "small" project before the public hearing.

Eric Edison, an attorney with Crowley Fleck representing Next Etera, cautioned the board that creating avoidance or exclusion areas late in a project’s development can conflict with the county’s existing conditional-use-permit (CUP) process and could present legal challenges. “You already have a process for evaluating a project and attaching conditions,” Edison told the board, urging care in how the procedural language would be applied.

Board members said the draft had been circulated to the county’s state attorney and credited McLean County’s attorney with earlier drafting. A motion to set the model-procedure language for public hearing, including the amendment to define project-size thresholds, passed on a roll call.

Next steps: staff will collect and attach clarifying literature about project size and scope, publish public notice for the hearing, and provide the county attorney a complete draft for final legal review before the hearing.