Land Use: Reports 4.3% of Farmland Pledged to Commercial Solar

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

Article Summary: A status memo from Zoning Administrator Marguerite Kenny included in the Oct. 1, 2026, committee packet reports that about 4.3% of Will County’s farmland has been designated for commercial solar energy facilities and that roughly 1,098 megawatts of capacity has been approved countywide. Staff told the committee there had been no new solar developments since the September report — on a day the committee rejected four solar and storage permits.

Will County Solar Status Key Points:

• The Land Use Department has processed 99 commercial solar zoning cases; the County Board has heard 77 and denied 13, six of which were later approved by court order.
• Ten facilities have completed the permitting process and are operational with certificates of occupancy issued.
• About 4.3% of the county’s 241,269 acres of farmland has been designated for commercial solar energy facilities.
• Approved capacity totals approximately 1,098 megawatts, which the memo rounds to about 1 gigawatt.

WILL COUNTY — The Will County Board Land Use & Development Committee on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, received an updated accounting of commercial solar development across the county showing that roughly 1 gigawatt of capacity has been approved and that about 4.3% of local farmland has been committed to solar projects.

The figures come from an Aug. 27, 2026, memo to the committee from Marguerite Kenny, AICP, the county’s zoning administrator and development analyst II, prepared at the committee’s request. The memo accompanies two detailed spreadsheets: one tracking the permit status of current commercial solar energy facilities and the share of farmland dedicated to each project, and a master list of all commercial solar cases.

According to the memo, only 4.3% of Will County’s farmland, which it puts at 241,269 acres, has been designated for commercial solar energy facilities. Ten facilities have completed the permitting process and are operational with certificates of occupancy issued.

The master list shows 99 zoning cases processed by the Land Use Department. The County Board has heard 77 of them and denied 13, and the memo notes that six of those 13 denials were approved through court order. Approved capacity totals approximately 1,098 megawatts.

When the item came up under other business, Land Use Department staff told the committee the material in the packet was unchanged from the previous month. “There has been nothing new with solar farms since that time,” staff said. The chairman replied, “Except for all the business we did today.” Staff agreed: “That was a lot today.”

That business was substantial. The committee declined to recommend approval of three separate commercial solar special use permits Thursday — in New Lenox Township, Manhattan Township and Green Garden Township — along with a companion battery energy storage permit in Manhattan Township. It did recommend first extensions of two previously approved special use permits, one of them for a commercial solar facility near Beecher. All of those actions are recommendations to the full County Board and take effect only if the board adopts them.

A 2024 staff report included in the October packet, prepared for an earlier Will Township solar case, summarizes the state framework that shapes these timelines. It notes that Illinois Public Law 102-1123, effective Jan. 27, 2023, defines the parameters counties may use in reviewing commercial solar energy facility proposals and requires that requests be heard at public hearing within a set period after a complete application and by the county board within 30 days thereafter, and that if a proposal meets state and county requirements, state law requires the county to approve it. A later public act extended the hearing-scheduling window to 60 days while leaving the 30-day post-hearing period unchanged.

Board member Judy Ogalla, who voted against each solar permit Thursday, told the committee the pressure is not easing. “No one stops coming no matter how many thousands of acres they continue to come,” she said during the New Lenox Township case. Later, as a farmland owner, she told colleagues that solar companies send mailings to agricultural landowners “on a regular basis” and that lease and purchase offers keep rising.