Ogle County Board quadruples application fee to $100,000 for solar, wind developers amid recent legal disputes

OREGON – The Ogle County Board on Jan. 21 unanimously approved an ordinance to increase the application fee for commercial solar and wind projects from a maximum of $25,000 to a fixed cost of $100,000.

The fee, which project developers pay to the county, is reviewed by the Ogle County Planning and Zoning Committee on a yearly basis. Its increase in 2025 is directed at the rising number of solar projects being brought to the county, which clashes with the board’s commitment to protect agriculture and landowner rights.

To get approval for a solar or wind project, developers check off two steps: the application for a special-use permit and a public hearing, Ogle County Planning and Zoning Administrator Mark Miller said in an interview with Shaw Local News Network.

The application fee is paid by developers as part of that process. Previously, the cost varied from project to project and was calculated as “equal to 2% of proposed commercial value, up to a maximum fee of $25,000,” according to the ordinance.

The fee now is fixed at $100,000 for all commercial solar and wind developers coming to Ogle County, according to the ordinance.

The money is put into an escrow account by the county and is used to “cover any costs that would take a hearing from start to finish” by the county, Miller said.

“This is very costly,” he said, in part because the county typically hires outside counsel because “the state’s attorney just doesn’t have time to dedicate to solar projects.”

The increased fee was recommended to the board by the Planning and Zoning Committee’s 8-1 vote at its Jan. 14 meeting.

“Due to the number of potential applications out there, we need to increase our fees to be prepared for further litigation,” board member Dan Janes said, according to the Jan. 14 Planning and Zoning Committee meeting minutes. “It’s fine if you want to go to war, but make sure you’re armed with some ammunition.”

He referenced a recent lawsuit that was filed against the county by a commercial solar developer, Cenergy Power, after the board unanimously denied a special-use permit in April 2024 for its solar project in Haldane. The board voted against the project based on the property’s quality farmland.

In the lawsuit, the developer based its argument off an Illinois law, enacted in January 2023, that requires counties and municipalities to adopt statewide standards for utility-scale solar and wind facilities.

The developer also decreased the size of its site plan to avoid the higher-quality soils in the southeast corner of the property and resubmitted its plan.

The board approved the project at its Dec. 17, 2024, meeting by a 13-11 vote to avoid fighting the lawsuit, which could cost anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000, Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock said at that meeting.

[ Ogle County Board approves special-use permit for solar project to avoid a lawsuit ]

At the Jan. 14 committee meeting, board member Ryan Reeverts said the increased fee needs to be justified because an Illinois public act requires that a county’s application fee must be “reasonable.”

According to the law, “a county may not require permit application fees for a commercial wind-energy facility or commercial solar-energy facility that are unreasonable. All application fees imposed by the county shall be consistent with fees for projects in the county with similar capital value and cost,” according to ilga.gov.

The Lee County Board updated its fee ordinance in January 2023 shortly after the new Illinois law was enacted, Lee County Zoning Administrator Alice Henkel said in an interview with Shaw Local. The application fee for commercial solar and wind projects in Lee County is $5,000 per megawatt up to a maximum of $100,000, which is used to cover the costs of a public hearing, according to the ordinance.

If those expenses are less than the charged fee, the remaining amount is refunded to developers, or if they exceed the charged fee, the developer is responsible for paying that amount to the county, according to the ordinance.

In Whiteside County, the application fee for solar and wind developers, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2022, is $1,000 plus $10 for every adjacent property included in the site plan, Whiteside County Building and Zoning Administrator Suzan Stickle said in an interview with Shaw Local.

That fee covers any costs that would take the county through a hearing for the project, she said.

At the Ogle County committee meeting, Chairperson Pat Nordman said she felt the increase was needed and listed several examples of recent unexpected costs to the county related to solar projects.

Looking ahead, the county has a special-use permit for a solar project in Polo coming to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a public hearing at 6 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Old Ogle County Courthouse, 106 S. Fifth St. in Oregon.

Miller said he expects there to be another one coming in February and to have petitions for “four potential solar projects in the not-so-far future.”

The board approved three solar projects in 2023, all of which are not yet under construction. As of this month, there are five solar projects in some phase of the construction process in Ogle County, Miller said.