Bill exempts Rochelle development area from solar, wind projects

ROCHELLE – Gov. JB Pritzker recently signed a bill that prevents solar and wind developments in the Interstate 39/88 development area.

Senate Bill 1127 exempts the development area from the state’s new siting rules for renewable energy projects, which state Sen. Win Stoller, R-Germantown Hills, said would uproot years of planning.

Officials have been working to land a large-scale industrial development at the Dual Rail Megasite south of Rochelle, which includes about 1,000 acres of land and access to rail and utility expansions that have been in the works for years.

Following the governor’s signature June 9, renewable energy projects are prohibited within a 4-mile radius of the intersection of Interstate 39 and Interstate 88, making it exempt from House bill 4412, a law that created a statewide siting standard for renewable projects that overruled local zoning authority.

Stoller said local, state and federal officials have invested more than $70 million in power, water, sewer, road, rail, fiber and bridge infrastructure over the past 25 years in that area.

“After the passage of the state’s new and controversial renewable siting rules, the Enterprise Zone in the Lee-Ogle area faced the real and potential threat of having years of planning and millions of dollars’ worth of investment uprooted and undone,” Stoller said.