Meeting Summary and Briefs: Will County Board Land Use & Development Committee for October 1, 2026

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

JOLIET — The Will County Board Land Use & Development Committee met for roughly four hours on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, in the County Board Room at 302 N. Chicago St., and declined to advance a favorable recommendation on every solar and battery storage application before it. Motions to recommend approval failed for two co-located 5-megawatt projects in New Lenox Township, which deadlocked 3-3; for a 5-megawatt community solar facility and its battery energy storage system in Manhattan Township, the battery permit on a 0-6 roll call; and for a 4-megawatt facility in Green Garden Township, which failed 2-4 even after the committee unanimously added a condition narrowing pile-driving hours. Township governments objected to three of the four. Each case nonetheless proceeds to the full County Board, where the permits will be decided; Chairman Frankie Pretzel told applicants the board would take them up two Thursdays later.

The only case to clear the committee was a map amendment and three special use permits for a business property on Maple Road near Mokena, recommended unanimously, along with two first extensions of existing special use permits in Monee Township and near Beecher, each recommended 5-1 with Judy Ogalla opposed. The committee also received informational updates on the Land Resource Management Plan and on countywide solar activity, and took no action on either. Full coverage of each action, including an attorney’s notice that the Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to decide what factors county boards may weigh in solar cases, appears in separate stories.

Ogalla Pushes for Seasonal Limits on Solar Landscaping

Ogalla asked the committee to revisit how it handles required landscaping at solar facilities, saying plantings installed at whatever point construction reaches them often die. “I’d like us to look at, if they’re going to do landscaping, we have them do it during a time of the year when it isn’t going to be just hot and dry,” she said. A Land Use Department staff member said the zoning ordinance already designates two planting seasons, one earlier in the year and one running into November, but agreed enforcement is difficult. “We know it’s problematic, and it’s difficult for our office to manage that landscape portion,” he said, citing water problems and contractors cutting down plants installed prematurely. No motion was made.

Forest Preserve District Urges Pollinator and Wildlife Measures

The Forest Preserve District of Will County submitted a Sept. 3, 2026, letter on the Green Garden Township solar application recommending a series of sustainability practices, forwarded to the committee under a Sept. 10 memo from Development Analyst I Alec Van Patten. Signed by Em Wilcher of the district’s Planning & Land Preservation Department, the letter encourages use of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Solar Site Pollinator Establishment and Management Guidelines, participation in the IDNR Solar Site Scorecard program, installation of quality native species, permeable pavement in access lanes and minimized hardscape. It asks that required fencing away from public access areas include a 6-inch bottom gap using woven wire rather than barbed wire, proposes collaboration on monitoring wildlife mortality, recommends tree clearing only between Nov. 1 and March 31, and offers partnership through The Nature Foundation of Will County.

September Minutes Approved

The committee approved the minutes of its Sept. 3, 2026, meeting by roll call at the start of the session, with no opposition recorded, following the call to order at about 11:06 a.m. Board member Daniel J. Butler led the Pledge of Allegiance at the chairman’s invitation. Pretzel noted at the outset his practice of taking public comment before each individual case rather than in a single block at the top of the agenda.

Agenda Correction on Duplicate Parcel Numbers

Before taking up the Green Garden Township solar case, Pretzel announced a correction to the printed agenda at staff’s request: duplicate parcel identification numbers listed in the item description for zoning case ZC-26-064 were struck so that each number appears once. The two PINs, 18-13-23-200-009-0000 and 18-13-23-200-010-0000, are unchanged.

No Executive Session; Next Meeting Nov. 5

Although executive session appeared on the posted agenda, the committee did not enter one. “No executive session today,” the chairman said before calling for a motion to adjourn, which passed by voice vote without opposition on a motion seconded by Sherry Newquist. The agenda lists the committee’s next regular meeting as Nov. 5, 2026, at 11 a.m. in the County Board Room.