Land Use: Manhattan Township Solar and Battery Permits Both Fail at Committee

Will County Land Use & Development Committee | October 1, 2026

Article Summary: The Will County Board Land Use & Development Committee on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, declined to recommend approval of either a 5-megawatt community solar facility or an accompanying battery energy storage system at 15520 W. Baker Road in Manhattan Township, after the Village of Manhattan, Manhattan Township and the Manhattan Fire Protection District all filed objections. The battery request drew no yes votes.

Stillwater Solar Key Points:

• The solar permit motion failed, with only Sherry Newquist and Dawn Bullock voting yes; the battery permit failed 0-6.
• The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial 2-4 on the solar request and 0-6 on the battery request, after voting 6-0 to adopt eight conditions drafted by the applicant on top of five recommended by staff.
• The fire district sought either a municipal water connection supplying 750 gallons per minute for eight hours or an on-site tank of at least 360,000 gallons dedicated to fire protection.
• Conditions in the record include a 900-foot minimum battery setback, a $7,500 landscape maintenance bond in favor of Manhattan Township, and a bar on any stand-alone battery facility.

JOLIET — The Will County Board Land Use & Development Committee on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, failed to advance either of two special use permits sought for a solar and battery storage development at 15520 W. Baker Road in Manhattan Township, with the battery request drawing unanimous opposition.

The requests, filed under zoning case ZC-26-055, listed Summer Das as owner of record, Angela Feria of Cultivate Power on behalf of Stillwater Solar LLC as agent, and Benjamin Jacobi of Polsinelli as attorney of record. The site is PIN 14-12-05-400-004-0000 in County Board District 2. Request S-26-029 is the solar permit; S-26-031 is the battery energy storage permit.

On the solar request, Newquist and Bullock voted yes; Pretzel, Brooks and Mitchell voted no. Ogalla, who announced during discussion that she would vote no, was called last and her roll-call response is not clearly captured in the recording. On the battery storage request, all six members — Pretzel, Newquist, Brooks, Bullock, Mitchell and Ogalla — voted no. Both cases advance to the full County Board. Nothing is approved and no construction may proceed unless the full board acts.

Development Analyst I Jesus Briseno told the committee the solar special use would cover the northern 52-acre portion of a roughly 153-acre A-1 agricultural parcel, with a separate roughly 10-acre area sought for the battery energy storage system. The applicant does not intend to build across the full 10 acres, he said. “Due to the possibility of the location of the batteries changing due to final engineering, the applicant’s requesting a little more space to allow that change of location if needed.” The Planning and Zoning Commission added a condition capping the installation at five battery containers.

Briseno said the project is estimated at approximately 16,000 panels — the staff report puts the figure at 16,525 on single-axis trackers — with two centrally located equipment pads, and that a Kimley-Horn noise study showed compliance with county noise regulations. Six objectors appeared at the public hearing, and staff received objections from the Village of Manhattan, Manhattan Township and the fire district.

Thirteen Conditions, and a Township That Said No

The commission voted 6-0 to adopt eight additional conditions drafted by the applicant, on top of five recommended by staff. The resulting ordinance draft lists 13 conditions, among them: a prohibition on any stand-alone battery system, operable only in conjunction with the solar facility; a minimum 900-foot setback from the nearest residence; compliance with NFPA 855 and the International Fire Code as adopted by the fire district; a 24-hour response requirement for significant project damage or damage to agricultural drain tile; a rail or pole along the top of the security fence to prevent sag over the up-to-40-year project life; a $7,500 landscape maintenance bond in favor of Manhattan Township, running 10 years and renewable for up to 10 more; pad-mounted or ground-mounted interconnection equipment where floodplain rules permit; native, non-evergreen screening trees planted at 5 to 6 feet and expected to reach 10 to 15 feet; a drain tile investigation before construction; and compliance with Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreement, decommissioning and financial-assurance requirements.

It was not enough for Manhattan Township. In a Sept. 3 letter signed by Clerk Kelly Baltas and approved by Supervisor James F. Walsh, the township board reported it had held a duly noticed public meeting with the developer on Aug. 31 and then voted to object, on a roll call of four ayes, no nays and one absent. The letter said the township’s own Solar Energy Facility Development Requirements and Policy “expressly states that no battery storage devices will be permitted on the site of a solar energy facility,” cited a lack of coordination with the Will County Forest Preserve District over a planned bike path connection to Round Barn Farm, and objected to the number of overhead electrical poles proposed. The letter also stated that Feria had said at the township meeting that the applicant was willing to withdraw the battery component from its county application.

The Village of Manhattan objected by Resolution No. 1099-26, adopted Sept. 1, 2026, on a 5-0 roll call with Trustee Tom Doyle absent and certified by Village Clerk Rebecca Bouck. The resolution states that the village’s corporate authorities “have determined that the proposed special use permit is inconsistent with the Village’s comprehensive plan and, if permitted, could frustrate the orderly development of the Village,” and notes the property lies within one and one-half miles of village limits. In a Sept. 15 memo to the Planning and Zoning Commission, Briseno advised that the village resolution “will not trigger a ¾ supermajority vote of the entire County Board.”

Fire District Water Demand and Road Questions

Walsh repeated the township’s objection in person. “Our board unanimously voted to turn this down,” he said, describing the parcel’s proximity to Jackson Creek, which bisects the property and is bordered by a Zone AE flood zone and wetland. He said his farming neighbor to the north, who could not attend, farms 160 acres that drain toward the creek and worries about field tile. “Once it’s in and the solar farm is gone and something happens to his field tile and he knows it’s down in here, how do we get at it?” Walsh said. “I know that the solar farms say that they always stay in touch, but I have to be honest. Tracking them down is the hardest part.” He described visiting older solar farms in eastern Will County where “the grass had grown up, the pine trees, a lot of them had died,” and said he was then chasing a contact in Virginia to get an access road mowed at a small existing township solar site.

Walsh told the committee the fire department does not want the battery system at all without either a connection to a municipal water system capable of 750 gallons per minute for eight hours — “there’s no city water for a mile and a half at least,” he said — or an on-site reservoir dedicated exclusively to fire protection with a minimum capacity of 360,000 gallons. “We are totally against the battery system for sure,” he said. He said the containers measure 23 feet by 8 feet 4 inches by 9 feet 5 inches and that documentation he received lists each at 105,000 pounds, a figure he called hard to believe.

Walsh also objected to the possibility of overhead interconnection equipment, noting the point of connection lies in floodplain along Eastern Avenue. He read the applicant’s language committing to pad- or ground-mounted equipment “subject to applicable floodplain requirements,” and said that qualifier concerned the township. “If we’re not there and ComEd and the solar people have to figure out what they’re going to do with this flood plane, these are going to end up in the air.”

Manhattan Township Highway Commissioner Jim “JB” Baltas told the committee that while the project’s address is on Baker Road, its entrance is on Eastern Avenue, which is under township jurisdiction. “That road cannot withstand that amount of truck traffic just to fill this tank,” he said, adding that a road use agreement must be in place before construction and that Will County standards require 80,000-pound roads.

Jeff Becker, identifying himself as a watershed committee chairman, was blunt: “This project is a disaster,” he said, objecting to siting lithium batteries beside Jackson Creek and arguing such facilities are repeatedly placed on bottomland with hydric soils where steel posts corrode fastest. “This creek system goes straight in where all children play.”

Applicant Cites Setbacks, Chemistry and Voluntary Conditions

Attorney Mark Gershon, appearing for the applicant, said the project was designed to satisfy both the county’s current requirements and most of the provisions of a battery storage ordinance the county is still considering, which he noted is not binding on this application. Against a 150-foot setback requirement for both panels and batteries, he said, the project would sit at least 900 feet from other residences — “six times what you’re requiring.”

Gershon said the applicant attempted to meet with the Village of Manhattan and “they were not willing to meet with us,” that the Village of New Lenox had no comment, and that the local roadway supervisor’s attorney indicated the district did not want to discuss a road use agreement until after approval.

Feria said the solar footprint would cover about 27.88 acres within a 35-acre fenced area, with the battery footprint at approximately 0.1 acres and centrally located. She described setbacks of 1,500 feet from the closest residences for the battery area, more than 1,800 feet from the nearest right of way, and more than 700 feet from Jackson Creek.

She catalogued changes made after engagement with the fire district, road district, Forest Preserve District, soil and water conservation district, the township and the village: panels removed from the south end to increase the setback to Jackson Creek; native non-evergreen conifer trees planted at five to six feet and maturing at 10 to 15 feet along West Baker Road; additional access-road turnarounds; a non-combustible gravel buffer of roughly 30 feet around the battery area; on-site provisional water storage; a preliminary emergency response plan developed with Fire Marshal David Kolosh; a 100-foot right-of-way vegetation buffer maintained to 12 inches; a 24-hour response and repair obligation for drain tile and storm damage; a drain tile investigation before construction using field observation and ground-penetrating radar by a firm she identified as ANS; and prioritizing local landscaping contractors.

“Not typical among solar projects, but we agreed to provide a landscaping maintenance bond in favor of the township valid for 10 years, renewable for another 10 years,” Feria said.

Feria said the storage equipment would be LG Energy Solution units using lithium iron phosphate chemistry. “This chemistry is considered more thermally stable than your previously more used chemistry, which is the nickel manganese cobalt, or NMC,” she said. “Thermally stable means that it essentially is less prone to overheating, which is the primary reason of why batteries catch on fire in the first place.” Each container would be rated 5.1 megawatt-hours, and five containers of four-hour duration would deliver 5 megawatts continuously for four hours — matching the solar facility’s output rather than multiplying it, she said in response to a question from Bullock.

Asked whether the batteries would draw power from the grid during off hours, Feria said they would not. “The batteries are exclusively to support the excess solar energy that is generated during the day,” she said, with discharge timing determined by the utility. She also said capital costs would be fully borne by Stillwater Solar and not passed to ratepayers. Bullock said he was “actually a big fan of the batteries more so than the solar.”

Feria listed remote 24-hour monitoring, thermal and fire detection, liquid cooling, and automatic and remote shutdown capability, and said the project would comply with NFPA 855 and the international fire code adopted by the fire district. She said the company’s fire expert testified that battery containers undergo certification testing in which they are deliberately set on fire, with third-party water and air testing afterward showing no adverse impact.

Responding to the creek and floodplain objections, Feria said the site plan exceeds the wetland buffer required under the county’s stormwater and water resources ordinance, that pad-mounted equipment in the floodplain would be elevated at least 12 inches above base flood elevation under permits required by the county and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and that compensatory storage is included on the site plan. She said the company would accept conditions for post-construction air and water monitoring and that a 24-hour emergency response contact would be posted at the gate.

Forest Preserve Trail and Creek Setback

Feria said the landowner voluntarily agreed to enter good-faith negotiations to provide land rights to the Forest Preserve District — either a conservation easement or a donation — for a trail the district identified in a 2022 plan that has not been finalized.

A Sept. 10 letter from Forest Preserve District Real Estate Manager Em Wilcher noted the property was identified in the district’s 2024 Preservation Plan and sits along a planned Jackson Creek greenway trail that would connect Round Barn Farm to Jackson Creek Preserve in Frankfort. The letter recommended a six-inch gap along the bottom of required fencing for wildlife movement, woven wire rather than barbed wire, native non-evergreen screening, tree clearing only between Nov. 1 and March 31, and adherence to Will County Ordinance Section 164.067 buffer standards. In a Sept. 14 letter of support, Das wrote that he was “open to good-faith discussions with the Forest Preserve regarding appropriate land rights” along Jackson Creek.

Ogalla, who said she serves as Forest Preserve District president, thanked the applicant for that coordination and for the additional conditions, then said she would vote no. “By us continuing to allow more and more solar facilities to be built on our agricultural land, the rural community, the agricultural community is suffering,” she said, citing tenant farmers who lose leases and cannot replace the acreage. “Just because of that, and this continued onslaught here in Will County, especially in County Board District 2, I’m going to be a no.”

Staff Found the Application Complete

The staff report said the application, initially submitted June 24, 2026, and deemed complete Aug. 6, 2026, satisfied the county’s checklist, including an Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreement countersigned by the Illinois Department of Agriculture on May 18, 2026. Staff recommended approval of both special use permits with five conditions each.

The report also laid out the statutory frame: Illinois Public Acts 102-1123 and 103-0580 require that a complete application be scheduled for hearing within 60 days and that the County Board render a decision within 30 days of the close of the public hearing, and provide that where a facility satisfies applicable state and local requirements, “the County is required to approve the application.” Staff noted that the county passed zoning updates reflecting the Clean and Reliable Grid Act on Aug. 20, 2026, but that the ordinance had not been signed by the County Executive’s office and was therefore not officially adopted, so the case was reviewed under the existing ordinance.

Other agency findings were largely neutral or favorable: the Federal Aviation Administration found no hazard to air navigation; a ForgeSolar glare analysis predicted no glare; the Kimley-Horn sound study concluded levels would fall below Illinois Pollution Control Board limits for Class A land uses; and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources reported no record of state-listed threatened or endangered species nearby. The Illinois Historic Preservation Office required a Phase I archaeological survey because of the project’s proximity to Jackson Creek. The Will-South Cook Soil and Water Conservation District assigned the property a Land Evaluation and Site Assessment score of 188, placing it in the Essential Farmland category; the district’s report states its board supports a minimum cutoff of 185 points for land recommended to remain Essential Farmland.

The packet also contains the project’s executed interconnection agreement with Commonwealth Edison, project number 26-19983, for 5,000 kilowatts, signed Sept. 2, 2026, by Brian Matthay for Stillwater Solar, a Delaware limited liability company registered in Illinois, and countersigned Sept. 3 by ComEd Principal Contract Specialist Ilyas Mohiuddin. The agreement requires the customer to carry comprehensive general liability coverage of at least $2 million per occurrence and $4 million in aggregate.