Logan County Board
New committee members hear an introduction to Zoning

 

[January 12, 2025] 

At 6:30 p.m., on Thursday January 9th, the Zoning and Economic Development Committee of the Logan County Board met for their first meeting in 2025. This meeting, which was originally scheduled to be held on Monday the 6th, was rescheduled because of the snow that Lincoln received that day. The meeting was held in the Blue Room of the Logan County Safety Complex, 911 Pekin Street in Lincoln.

Since last year, the board members on this committee have changed, and the number of total members has decreased from five to four. The new roster of board members is Chairman of the Committee Michael DeRoss, Vice Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Hannah Fitzpatrick, and Bob Sanders. Of the four, Sanders is the only returning committee member from 2024. Fitzpatrick was the only member not in attendance at this meeting. In addition to DeRoss, Schmidt, and Sanders, board members J Lance Conahan and Gil Turner were also present.

The meeting began with old business, starting with an update on the Countywide Broadband Initiative Project. DeRoss informed the committee that, to his knowledge, this project was now funded and well on its way to getting into the next phase. It was decided that an update on the energy projects in the county would wait until later in the meeting.

Next, the committee moved on to new business, for which there was only one item. Tracy Bergin, of the Logan County Zoning Office, was on hand to provide some insight to the new committee on what zoning is and the purpose it serves.

Bergin got up before the committee and started off by telling the members that there is a lot of great information on zoning that will help them understand it on the Logan County website. Bergin then shared that zoning is a legal function that is granted to states by the federal government. The state governments then grant this function to their counties. This means then that Logan County can only perform zoning functions so long as they are allowed by the government of Illinois. “Everything that is in the zoning ordinance has been adopted and updated over time,” Bergin said. “Zoning is a legal construct.”

She then got into the history of zoning. “Zoning is a system of managing land use,” Bergin continued. “It divides land into districts that says what you can do with land in that area so that you don’t have conflicting uses.” Bergin shared that, back in the early 20th century, there would be small communities outside of large factories, making for unhealthy living conditions. Horses, horse drawn carriages, and motor cars would all share the same streets, which could make things messy. People started to think that, if there was going to be an industrial zone somewhere, houses should be required to be a certain distance away for the health and safety of those living within. According to Bergin, zoning is “designed to protect health and safety and balance that against property rights.”

She then took a moment to discuss the difference between zoning and assessment. “Assessment,” Bergin said, “deals with taxes. People think that if they have their property rezoned, it is going to change their tax bill. It’s not.” Zoning is concerned with what property is being used for, like agriculture, for example. It then gives an outline of what someone is legally allowed to use that property for.

Logan County adopted zoning in 1970, and since then, the map has changed a lot. There is currently a GIS zoning map viewer on the Logan County website. This map allows you to see zoning districts and their boundaries. Click here
( https://logancounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Map
AndAppGallery/index.htmlappid=0f5d86ef8b9a41
259cacae6aa46518b9 ) for a list of maps that the Logan County website has available.

Bergin also provided some updates on the energy projects that are going on in Logan County. When it comes to solar or wind energy projects that are approved but have not yet started in the county, there is a sunset clause in these permits. The permits state that if “significant progress” has not been made in the first five years from when the permits are approved, the permits will be pulled, and the companies will have to start over to get their project approved again. The reason for this is because the current Sugar Creek Wind project came to the County Board for the first time in 2011. It took until 2018 to get to the permitting process. The board decided that a sunset clause was needed to ensure that companies were not dragging their feet on using the land designated to them.

Bergin also described these energy projects as a “boon” to their respective townships. She said, some townships have gotten thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars that they have been able to reinvest in their communities. These include things like farms and roads, and this is all because of the income that the county generates from letting these companies build energy projects.

DeRoss then had a question about the decommissioning of energy projects at the end of their life cycles. The state provides the money that it is going to cost the county to decommission these projects, and previously, counties have wanted all of this money up front. The new ordinance regarding this outlines that the state only has to provide a certain percentage of the decommissioning cost at certain landmarks in the project's lifespan, amounting to the total amount by the time it is time to decommission. The counties can reevaluate the cost every five years to determine if the cost of decommissioning is going to be higher than previously thought. They can then increase the payments the state must make to offset the increased estimated cost of decommissioning.

At the end of the meeting, during the Zoning Officer Report, it was shared that Top Hat is looking to make permanent storage for their equipment. Their current storage yard is temporary. It was also shared that a company out of Georgia may be looking to set up another new solar sight within Logan County.

[Matt Boutcher]