Municipalities

Within city limits, renewable energy generation can be more than just solar arrays on residential properties, though this is an important step for residents to have more control over their energy bills, as well as for facilitating a renewable energy transition. 

Renewable energy options for municipalities

• Promote or seek community solar development to help lower energy bills for those who cannot afford to, or who do not have the space to, install solar panels on their property.
• Look for ways to reuse brownfield sites, such as capped landfills, for community solar.
• Institute conservation subdivision standards that include promoting or requiring renewable energy generation on new developments.
• Adopt policies for renewable energy generation on municipally owned property or buildings, setting an example for other community members.
• Explore siting small wind energy systems inside city limits, which typically involve one small wind turbine with blade lengths and tower height significantly less than commercial wind turbines.
• Complete a general update to the zoning and building ordinances to promote the installation of electric vehicle charging stations.
• Revitalize downtowns by incentivizing electric vehicle charging stations and service-oriented businesses catering to visitors.
• Adopt Illinois’ Stretch Energy Code to have higher standards for energy efficiency and energy conservation.
• Pursue ways to fund energy-efficient retrofits for low- and middle-income residents, perhaps using savings from the municipality’s own use of renewable energy.

The above are just a few ideas of avenues to consider, and Extension energy staff are available for a free consultation to help municipal leaders discover what else is possible. 

Illinois’ Community Energy Planning Act of 2021

One way communities can develop a vision for renewable and clean energy generation is to follow the goals outlined in Illinois’ Community Energy Planning Act of 2021. 

In 2021, the Illinois legislature passed the Community Energy, Climate, and Jobs Planning Act. The legislation encourages, but does not require, local units of government – municipalities and counties alike – to undertake a planning process specific to the clean energy transition, with the end product being a Community Energy, Climate, and Jobs Plan. 

Clean energy includes renewable sources, such as solar and wind, as well as sources that do not emit carbon, such as nuclear power plants. Learn more about clean energy options in Illinois.

The legislation outlines several goals for the planning process, with the primary themes being workforce development for a clean energy transition, equitable participation and outcomes, and multifaceted improvement of communities through nature-based solutions to climate change.

Communities can assess their needs and strengths, as well as take stock of how to have meaningful engagement with residents who may feel the effects of high energy prices or lack of hazard mitigation planning more acutely than others.

With the number of goals involved in the plan, as well as how time-intensive and technical it may be to complete, municipalities could consider partnering with their home county and other communities in the region to pool resources and think more broadly about how to achieve economic and workforce development goals while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. 

If you need assistance in gathering resources to work on a Community Energy, Climate, and Jobs Plan or would like to learn more about renewable and clean energy, please reach out to Extension staff. 

Zoning Ordinances and Land Use Planning

Envisioning larger goals for renewable energy adoption within your municipality will rest on smaller steps, but an important foundation: reviewing and amending the zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance can include minimum standards for how new developments should account for electric vehicles or on-site energy generation, as well as to ensure that renewable energy projects – both at the utility-scale and at the smaller, distributed scale – are permissible in most zoning districts. 

Local officials, whether professional staff or volunteers on the planning commission, should review the zoning ordinance to see if there are districts where renewable energy projects are prohibited or not explicitly allowed. Sometimes, zoning ordinances may unintentionally “prohibit” a land use by omission, meaning it simply isn’t accounted for in the ordinance. 

When reviewing the ordinance, identify districts that do not explicitly allow distributed or utility-scale renewable energy generation, either through a regular building permit or through a special use permit. 

Questions to ask as local officials would be:

1. Was the omission intentional?
2. If so, have the community’s goals changed since the last ordinance update?
3. If the omission was unintentional, what are some reasonable provisions you could include in the ordinance to not just allow renewable energy, but promote it?

Try to think about the zoning ordinance holistically so that it supports a broad range of goals and is proactive, rather than reactive. Remember, zoning ordinances are not “just” regulations, and regulations are not inherently “bad.” 

The zoning ordinance is not a static document

Local officials, as well as members of the public who own property in the municipality’s jurisdiction or have an interest in such property, can initiate text amendments to revise the ordinance. These text amendments go through a public hearing process, where public comments can be gathered, and proposed amendments may go through several iterations before being adopted by a governing body. 

When you think of renewable energy, you may think of the large, utility-scale wind and solar farms that you see dotting the landscape as you drive through a rural area. Maybe you question who has the final say in their permitting or if projects that large would ever be inside of city limits. The answer is mixed.

For utility-scale wind farms, it is unlikely that any turbines would be sited inside  city limits due to the setback requirements from the base of the turbine and a need for the air around the top of the turbine to be unobstructed so it can capture the full wind speeds. 

However, utility-scale solar can be located inside city limits. Large, ground-mounted solar arrays that have been sited on old industrial or commercial sites or in a buffer zone near an airport can and do supply electricity to the grid. 

Even if a utility-scale renewable energy project is entirely located outside of city limits, cities may stand to receive some of the tax revenue generated by these projects and could be beneficiaries of community benefit agreements with the developer. Local leaders should still pay close attention to utility-scale development, even if they will not be the ones involved in approving or denying the project.

Due to the differing needs of municipalities and counties, municipalities generally hold their own zoning jurisdiction and are not subject to the zoning ordinance established by the county for the unincorporated (outside city limits) areas and vice versa. 

However, municipalities can also have “extraterritorial jurisdiction” within a certain distance of their city limits. This is because municipalities are granted some control over land use activities that could impact city growth plans. In Illinois, extraterritorial jurisdiction is limited to 1.5 miles outside of city limits. 

This means that any plans for utility-scale wind and solar energy projects are left to the municipalities’ permitting processes if the project is within 1.5 miles of city limits. Projects of this magnitude would likely fall under a special use permitting process, wherein there is at least one public hearing before the permit is approved or denied. Review these pages for more information about special use permits.

Energy Siting    Energy Siting for Counties