Committee forwards new state-driven fees for commercial wind, solar and storage to zoning hearing

The LaSalle County Finance & TIF Committee voted May 12 to forward proposed zoning text amendments that update fees for commercial wind, solar and energy storage projects to the zoning board for a May 20 hearing.

Brian, who presented the changes, told the committee the state statute imposes a maximum structure and requires the county to update local fees. "The state actually, in the statute, has a maximum, fee that they imposed," he said. Under the proposed text amendments, application fees for solar and commercial wind facilities would be revised to $5,000 per megawatt with an overall statutory maximum of $125,000; Brian said that change will raise fees on many smaller projects (for example, some 5-megawatt projects that previously paid lower amounts would see a larger payment) and that larger projects may pay less because of the statutory cap.

Brian also explained the county has already updated building permit fees and that the zoning application fee changes would apply to new projects moving forward; projects that already passed zoning under the old schedule would remain subject to the fees they paid at zoning. He said the amendments are on the zoning board agenda for May 20 and, following the zoning hearing, the changes would move to the county board for final action in July.

Committee members asked whether the county has large projects in the pipeline; Brian said the county recently permitted several wind and solar projects and did not expect additional very large projects imminently. The committee voted to forward the amendments to the zoning hearing; the motion passed unanimously.

What happens next: The zoning board will hold a May 20 hearing; subject to zoning and the required county procedures the county board would take final action in July.