Will County planning staff, consultants brief committee on ordinance changes to implement Clean and Reliable Grid Act

Will County planning staff and outside consultants on Thursday presented a draft set of zoning and fee amendments to implement the state's Clean and Reliable Grid Act, saying the county must update its ordinances to avoid legal challenge and to reflect new statutory standards.

The committee heard a 90-minute briefing from Richard Porter, partner at the consultant firm the committee hired. Porter said the statute, which becomes effective June 1, creates a new, statewide regulatory framework for energy storage systems and narrows what counties may require for siting wind and solar facilities.

Porter said the proposal replaces an older battery ordinance with a comprehensive energy-storage ordinance and adds uniform requirements for commercial wind and solar. Among the changes the draft captures, Porter said, are minimum setbacks for energy storage systems (150 feet from the outside wall of a residence or community building, 50 feet from property lines and 50 feet from public roadways), explicit drainage-plan requirements, and required decommissioning plans consistent with the Agricultural Impact Mitigation Act.

Why it matters: the CRGA also enables applicants to seek an appeal to the Illinois Commerce Commission for large, qualified projects. Porter said that applicants of facilities exceeding 50 megawatts may, after notice and a short cure period, ask the ICC to issue a siting certificate if a county denies a compliant application — a process that effectively supplements judicial review.

County staff also told members the statute caps local fees: for energy storage, staff noted the draft applies a $5,000-per-megawatt fee up to a stated statutory maximum (the draft references the statute's caps and proposes language to match them); for commercial wind and solar the statute similarly sets per-megawatt presumptively reasonable fees and maximums for review reimbursement. Porter said the effect is to limit what counties can charge applicants for review and permitting.

Committee members pressed the consultants about how much authority counties retain. Several members asked whether the county could impose larger setbacks or other rules more protective than the state standard. Porter repeatedly said the statute establishes minimums and that drafting rules that are more restrictive than the CRGA would invite legal attack. He also said the draft ordinance seeks to preserve the county's ability to require drainage and decommissioning plans, and to include language encouraging — but not mandating — aircraft-detection lighting on wind turbines to reduce nighttime blinking for neighbors.

Next steps: staff said the draft ordinance is being circulated to committee members and that land use staff will ask the committee to send the proposal to a public hearing at the June meeting. "If we don't update our ordinances," a member noted during the discussion, "we're going to be open to litigation and challenges if an applicant believes county rules are inconsistent with the new law." Porter and staff recommended moving the draft to public hearing to create an administrable, consistent local code that mirrors the new state law.

Quote: "What the statute does is create a comprehensive set of provisions for energy storage systems and streamline permitting for wind and solar," said Richard Porter, who told the committee the statute also vests the Illinois Commerce Commission with authority to hear some appeals. "If you do nothing," Porter said later, "your current ordinances may be deemed non-compliant and susceptible to appeal."

The committee did not vote on the ordinance during the meeting; staff recommended circulating the redline and scheduling a public hearing in June.