Property Rights vs. State Standards Take Center Stage
A barn sits in front of a wind farm in Lee County in northern Illinois.
Numerous downstate farmers and county officials are decrying a lame duck session action that sets statewide zoning standards for wind and solar projects around the state.
The bill, which was signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker last Friday, sets maximum distances from residences and other occupied buildings to be set back from wind or solar projects. Previously, county ordinances were a patchwork of regulations, some offering nearly no restrictions on projects and some making the projects nearly impossible to develop.
“[The legislature is] totally kicking downstate counties legs out from underneath them so they can plop in their solar and wind farms anywhere they want,” one upset downstate county board member told us. “It’s just an effort to get to their baloney green energy mandates.”
The Illinois Farm Bureau opposed the legislation, but not for the statewide standards, said IFB Director of State Legislation Kevin Semlow. He says Farm Bureau supports an even playing field, much like for large livestock operation around the state. But, he says, the law undermines drainage districts and codes as well as setbacks and discrepancies in the state pollution control board statute.
“[It] definitely forces counties to modify their zoning ordinances,” Semlow said. “The prevalent feeling [among members] is that landowners have private property rights to develop or not develop land as they see fit.”
Environmental groups supported the legislation, claiming they were working to combat efforts in downstate counties to stop the state from meeting clean energy goals in the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA).
“We’ve seen an uptick in radical misinformation campaigns taking root here in Illinois that aim to obstruct the progress we have made in CEJA by banning local wind and solar clean energy projects,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council said in a release as the bill was being debated.. “Unaddressed, these out-of-state fear-mongers will compromise the state’s ability to meet our climate goals and realize the financial savings, job creation, economic development, and grid reliability secured in CEJA.”
Semlow says the new law impacts wind and solar developers and has little impact on individual landowners.
We’re told some county officials in different parts of the state are considering legal action challenging the constitutionality of the law.