The Lee County Zoning & Planning Committee voted to forward three planning items — petition 25PC80 (zoning text amendment), petition 25PC81 (preliminary plat) and petition 25PC82 (preliminary plat for the Twin Oaks subdivision off Kilgore Road) — to the Executive Committee for inclusion on the November County Board agenda.

Alice, zoning/planning staff, told the committee that petition 25PC80 proposes a text amendment to limit the number of livestock or farm animals in the R‑1 district and to allow restricted use of chickens in the R‑2 district; the Planning Commission heard public comment (including opposition from three village representatives from Sublette) and recommended approval with one change to the proposed language. Alice said petition 25PC81 and petition 25PC82 (both preliminary plats related to small parcel incorporations and lot reconfigurations) received recommendations to approve from the Planning Commission.

"We did have 3 members from the village of Sublette there present. Sublette overall does not want any chickens," Alice told the committee.

Alice also summarized provisions in a 2025 Illinois omnibus energy and mass‑transit package expected to be signed by the governor that county staff had circulated via UCCI Executive Director Ryan McCreery. She said the bill would cap certain petition and building permit fees for wind and solar projects (for example, petitioning fees presumed reasonable up to $5,000 per megawatt and building permit fees presumed reasonable up to $5,000 per megawatt with stated larger caps up to specified totals), prohibit county deadlines to start construction shorter than five years (changing Lee County’s current three‑year substantial start rule), and establish backstop zoning standards for energy storage systems (including permit‑fee caps, setbacks and decommissioning requirements).

Alice cautioned the building permit fee caps could have a greater operational impact locally because Lee County’s existing fees are higher than the new presumptive caps and that the change to a five‑year start window would lengthen developers’ time to commence construction.

Motions to forward 25PC80, 25PC81 and 25PC82 (and corresponding resolutions) were each moved by Dean Friel and seconded (Chris Norberg and Keen Hudson in the record for different petitions); there was no discussion and each motion passed by voice vote.

Next steps: Staff will present hearing officer recommendations (where not yet complete) and the forwarded petitions to the Executive Committee and then to the County Board; county staff and committee members will monitor the state omnibus bill’s final text and implementation guidance for impact on local permit and fee practices.