Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Where's your gamble? Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Will County Planning and Zoning Committee regular meeting of May 5th. Um, and calling this meeting to order. Uh, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Roger, would you do the honors again?

To the flag, United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I have a roll call, please. Roll call. Matt Garland here. Lewis Navarat here. Karen Warick here. Roger Betttonhousen here. Kimberly Mitchell here. John Kener here. And Chairman Houston here. We have a quorum. And

we we have a quorum. I'm going to pause the meeting at this point to uh swear everybody in in mass. Anybody who's speaking tonight, please raise your hand. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God. I do. Thank you. I'm going to also ask everybody in the room to turn down, turn off or put in airplane mode your cell phones so that we have an undisturbed meeting. Now, minutes of approval. We have uh the minutes from uh March 31st and 30th. 30th and 31st, pardon me. Um then I presume everybody's had a chance to read the minutes. So, um I'm asking for a motion.

I'll make a motion. Second. Have a motion. Second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Okay. Next we have the hearing the meeting from the planning and zoning commission public hearing on April 7th. Um so I would like a motion for that. Also I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes for April 7, 2026.

Second. I have a motion, a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Okay. Our first case tonight, uh, which is going to be ZC-26-016, is asked to be postponed until May 19th. So, I don't think we need a motion, but we'll get one just in case. Yeah. So, I have a motion to postpone, Mr. Chairman. And ZC26-4678, skip that. That's wrong. ZC26-016 move to the May 19th meeting.

Second. I have a motion and second. We have a roll call. Ruben Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner? Yes. Roger Bettton? Yes. Matt Garland? Yes. Lewis Navarat? Yes. Karen Warick and Chairman Hugh Stippen.

Okay. Yes. Thank you. Um, so our first case now that we will hear tonight is ZC26-027 and Margaret Kenny is the presenter. Okay, good evening. So, zoning case 26027 takes place in Juliet Township. The property is 1619 East C Street in Joliet. The owner of record is LMD Liquor LLC where Laja Desai is 100% owner and the agent um that has been added to the application since the application has been submitted is Highland Entertainment LLC where the same owner Ljai Desai is 100% owner and the attorney is Nate Washburn of KG LLC. The owner operates Highland Liquors, which is a liquor store from the property, but the applicant applied um for the request for a special use permit for a bar tavern last January, going through a public hearing in March of last year, but ultimately withdrew his application in March on March 28th due to the county not allowing two separate liquor licenses with the same establishment. Um the V County Liquor Commission basically about a year ago allowed video gaming to occur um and in doing so was working through the process as um after the fact that they opened video gaming as an option. So, the Will County Liquor

Commission has resolved the issue with um this establishment and the applicant is reapplying for the request for the Barer Tavern in hopes of getting the video gaming um permitted on this site. In order to get a video gaming license from the state, you need an onremise consumption liquor license. So, the applicant has added a fast food service to the establishment and also has applied for a second remodel permit to install a partitioned room for the gaming. Um, the existing liquor store already, like I mentioned, has a special use permit for package liquor sales and the applicant seeks to keep this use and license. um but with a partitioned gaming room that would be considered a separate address and separate use um within the same building. So the state and county require gaming license like I mentioned to hold an on-remise consumption liquor license. The applicant would need the license to have both on-site consumption and package liquor sales from this property. And with the existing package liquor, it does our liquor control ordinance would not allow him to change his use classification to get that combination license. But by having that partitioned room and having a separate address, they could potentially get a new liquor um license associated with that establishment. Um so with the liquor uh the bar request just to kind of put the definition out there it's an existing it's basically um when it does not meet the definition of a restaurant which is 65% sales comes from food sales. Um so that's why it falls under a bar or tavern. Um that being said,

the Plat survey on the screen shows the property um being formerly two lots and the proposed gaming area is approximately 338 square ft with six proposed terminals. The addition of the gaming room is not seen to increase the vehicle foot traffic already occurring from the existing use. It's more of a accessory um use to the existing liquor store and it's staff's understanding that the separate address would need to be issued for the partition space before um the county would grant the liquor license to this site for onremise consumption. With the aerial we have the subject site as you saw in the plat. It's lots 39 and 40 in Sha Trace subdivision which was platted in 1927. It's 13,000 square feet. It has 105 ft of frontage along Calf Street and 121 feet along Elangquin. The property is improved with a 7,000 foot mixeduse building with commercial and residential uses that was built back in 1970. And the property has been a liquor store since the 70s. Um the recently applied for commercial remodel permit um has been issued for that fast food service to um be contained in the store and a separate one is close to being issued which would be for the remodel of the front section um along here for the gaming. The existing use has 20 parking spaces. The retail sales for the food and the liquor would be requiring a minimum of four spaces per thousand square feet. And then the bars tend to require a minimum of 15 spaces per thousand square feet. And the proposed gaming and eating and retail sales um would meet the existing 20 spaces. The current hours of operation for this establishment is 6:00

a.m. to 1:00 a.m. and roughly 120 patrons visit the store daily. Two to three employees work each shift. You can see this area is um mixed with residential and commercial along uh Cash Street. The property is zone C2. It is a conforming lot. Looking inside um looking at some photos of the property. So this is looking left or on the image on the left is looking east. The image on the right is looking south along and across Cash Street. Um, this is looking at the existing parking for Highland Liquors. Looking inside the existing liquor store, um, and the area that is going to be remodeled with regard to the special use criteria. Um, to briefly summarize, the main intention of the applicant is to obtain obtain the on-remise consumption liquor license to allow video gaming. Um and the gaming is not anticipated to generate a high um turnaround of foot traffic, but rather the fact that you have to have liquor sales. The liquor sales would not have a high return on investment. It's more the gaming sales that's going to generate the increase in sales. Um so staff has found that the sales would be ancillary to the package liquor sales and food sales that's occurring on the site. Um, the liquor store has existed since the 1970s and the applicant is only seeking at ways to continue to serve the community while enhancing its revenue and diversifying. The use would be entirely confined to the existing footprint of the building. Only the interior remodeling would incur and the parking is sufficient to accommodate the additional uses. And to note that commercial remodel permits would be required for any remodels. Um, and they

would have to be completed prior to the county issuing a liquor license for the on-site consumption. And then the process from there would be once the county issues on-site consumption liquor license, the applicant would go to the state to get the video gaming license as well as the liquor license and then comes back to the county to get the gaming license. The special use permit would have two years um to legally establish this use. So provide proof and evidence that they have an established liquor license. And then there are extension requests possible for good cause if they need additional time. That being said, staff is recommending approval of the special use permit. Um again, I apologize I did not read the slide. uh it is not for a commercial solar energy facility but I can note that um it is for a bar or tavern with three conditions and those three conditions are correct. Um the first one being the typical site inspection. The second being that the special use be transferable to future owners and the third that the applicant must receive and retain a liquor license in accordance with the county's liquor control ordinance. And then I'm happy to answer any questions.

I have no questions. Does anyone have any questions? Thank you very much. And I do believe the applicant and attorney are here tonight if you have any questions for them.

Yes. Are there uh any concerned citizens or objectors to this case? There are. Okay. I will hear from the applicant first and then we'll call on you. It's a little different. I'm not used to staring a straight line down at you. Uh fine uh folks. Uh Nate Washburn with KG LLC. I'm the attorney for the applicant. Uh staff did a very good report. I think it summarized everything quite well. The reality of uh what we're here today to bring forward is it's a continuation and cleanup of an item uh that probably should have been dealt with I think what five or six months ago when we brought this uh through for the liquor license itself. But due to a bit of a miscue uh partially of my own uh doing uh probably as much as anything else uh when we originally came through it was for a liquor license for a bar restaurant because we were going to do food service and liquor and then use that to apply for gaming. Mr. uh and Mrs. uh you know Desai uh father and daughter who are responsible for operating the business they had since gotten food service off the ground. Uh I erently didn't realize that that was going to be permitted. I thought we needed the special use just to serve food. So I thought this was already a done and dusted uh aspect of this project and uh in consultation with the liquor commissioner's office and staff, we realized we had gone all the way down the pipe for the actual license itself and that went fully through the board and was approved by the full county board only to realize we needed

to check this box before they could actually issue the license to us. So, we're here. Nothing has changed since we were here in, I believe, uh, December of last year. Uh, it's the same request for the same purpose to allow this, uh, 300 plus square foot bumpout, which will have its own separate address toain a liquor license, obtain uh, then presumably through the state a liquor license and gaming license to come back to get that ratified by the county. I'm certainly happy to answer any questions, but this really is the exact same project that came through at the end of last year. Is anyone any questions?

Would you please take a seat over there, Mr. Washurn? Absolutely. May I hear from the concerned citizen or objective? Please state your name for the record.

Good evening. Andrew Smith, 413 Kaunga Street. Nice to see you all again. I know I can't be the only one that this feels like it's a deja vu. Here we are discussing the same thing as we did last year. So, I guess people can resubmit a request to get an open bar liquor license as many times as they want. Well, until number one, they pay off enough people to get a yes vote. Or number two, they had made changes to the request and that hasn't happened other than the the food part of it. Or number three, you just stop being greedy about all the money and take note for an answer. So, we will see how this goes this evening. But I lived in the Ridgewood area my entire life. That's 54 years. I know I I look every bit of 55, but thank you. But I come here tonight to oppose this open liquor consumption of a bar lick license requested by Highen Liquor at 1619 East Cass. You see, I could spend the entire time speaking tonight on stats like the 15 million people that struggle with the alcohol abuse or the likelihood that a child will drink alcohol if their parents partake in drinking alcohol on a regular basis. Or how about the 37 people that die every day from drunk driving crashes? Or how about the roughly 40% of prison inmates that were totally drunk out of their mind when they committed their crimes? Or maybe because I'm a Bible believing man that wants to see change for the better in the neighborhood. But I should talk about the decline in our morality and what as a society deems to be okay. or how sad it is that a society wants to consider gambling and drinking to be part of the everyday normal life. But how about we start with the common sense that file states that high liquor

currently has roughly 120 customers per day that uses currently 20 parking spaces operating as a parkage package goods carry out liquor store. So basically that said 120 customers that use the 20 parking spaces of the and because two of them are taken up by the apartment upstairs. So that will be going from business that bags up an an item for the customer, sends them on their way, and a business that is now going to offer some customer three three different options such as open alcohol consumption on the premises, gambling machines, and even some, from what I'm told, some pretty good fried chicken. It's just what I'm told. I haven't tried it yet, but I sense some some greed here. Okay, so help me figure this out. The customer buying packaged good is now going to stay for a little while, have a few cold ones. Another customer comes in, going to stay and have dinner, has some of that fried chicken. Then there's going to take a minimum of 30 minutes to prepare that. So, that's going to tie up parking spots for a bit. But then you have four the four other customers sitting at the gambling machines. So, there goes them parking spaces. So, where or how is the remainder of that 120 customers that they get per day going to park or even have room to pull in and out of that parking lot for that matter? If I'm not mistaken, they also claim that they don't believe there will be no increase in foot or vehicle traffic. You got to be kidding me. That's 120 customers more than likely that will triple. Do you honestly think that they would be wanting to do this if they had thought this wouldn't increase their sales? It's all about the money. It's about greed. And how much are we willing to give up for said money or tax dollars? Once

again, have you or any of you been around this corner during rush hours or the busiest parts of the day? It's a mess. It's a disaster. How do I know? Because I cruise that street every single day. I I I know there's been no expansion of the parking lot because he has no nowhere to go. So, in closing, I have to bring up the fact that nothing good happens on these streets after 1000 p.m. People have been dying outside of bars more now so than ever. Last weekend, a 31-year-old man was shot in the head dead leaving a bar. Or how about my family friend Julian? A young father shot dead by somebody leaving a bar drunk. Now his kids have no father to help raise them because of some mad drunk people leaving the tavern. Will County does not and I know you guys don't want to be the myrtle capital of Illinois. We all have to agree on that. So, as the man that drives this intersection, So, as a man that drives this intersection as a day, every day, as a man that sees police in High Liquors parking lot on a regular basis, as a man that seen a guy urinating on the wall outside of the building by the dumpsters in broad daylight, as a man that knows this neighborhood inside and out, and as a man that wants to see good change in our community, as a god-fearing ing man that knows what is right. You do not want drunk, ticked off, broke customers flying in and out of this parking lot all hours of the day and night. What we do need is more opportunities for our kids. So, I suggest this man in invest in maybe some splash pads, recreation centers, how about a swimming pool on the east side? How nice would that be? We definitely don't need any more violence or murders

from drunk people. Romans 6:12 says, "Therefore, do not let sin reign over you so that you obey its evil's desires." Once again, I pray you do not allow this to go any further. Thank you for your time. God bless every one of you. Thank you, sir, for your testimony.

Mr. Washurn, would you care to respond? So, I uh certainly appreciate the uh comments of uh you know the gentleman uh Mr. Smith. Uh I would say a couple of things. First, on average, uh, any liquor store, you know, gas station, you know, Benny's, Suzies, whatever the heck these, uh, gaming cafes, uh, go by, you know, their average, you know, stay for somebody who may go to partake in the machines is usually less than a half an hour, probably closer to 15 or 20 minutes. You know, they come in, they spend a few dollars. If they win, they might stay a little longer and if they lose what they got, they're usually on their way. This is a good additional business model. Uh, and remember, we brought this forward a year ago in conjunction with food service. We have now instituted food service. We don't have based on the layout of the liquor store, this isn't a sit-down restaurant where people are sitting there for four hours eating and drinking. You know, they're coming in, they're picking up their carry out and going. And if they're anything like me, as somebody whose father was a marine who said, you know, to be early is to be on time, I usually have a few about five or 10 minutes to every uh venture I go to. And if I wanted to throw a couple bucks in the machine and kill that five or 10 minutes, that's really what the ancillary benefit of this use is as far as the consumption. Most of these places outside of a true tavern uh when they have these poor licenses, the amount of pouring going on is uh to say it's dimminimous would probably be a gross overstatement of how little pouring actually goes on. But the state still requires by law that you have a poor license as a part of this. That being said, right now the application applies

to the entire property. If this commission wanted to add another uh condition to our request that the special use be limited to the 300 odd square foot area that is going to be utilized as the gaming parlor. That is certainly a concession my client could live with to disabuse anybody of the idea that this is going to be open season on people wandering around a liquor store drinking. That's not the practical reality. My client has no interest in having people drinking throughout the liquor store. It is a relatively confined space. But if that is something that want, you know, was thought to be a wise addition for its condition, my client would be happy to acquies to such a condition and agree to it. That said, this was the same request that we brought forward la late last year for a liquor license proper. This is just a special use permit that should have come along with it, but due to a miscue got left on the cutting room floor. This has already been vetted by this commission and recommended for approval. It went through land use, recommended for approval, and the full county board approved the issuance of the actual liquor license. This is just the piece we need to implement said liquor license and complete the uh improvements. And to the gentleman's uh concern, this is the east side of Joliet, an area that depending on who you ask is underserved in terms of investment and improvement. My client operates a liquor store and he is trying to invest and improve his property to the best of his ability knowing the as noted by staff relatively limited space because of the turnaround times and the fact that there's already the food service and a lot of this is ancillary. We do believe the existing parking will be more than adequate because anybody who's in there

shopping, you know, isn't going to be in there for an exorbitantly prolonged time by virtue of these machines. Again, at most it might be a half an hour, but in all reality, it's on average going to be something less than that. So, again, not getting into religion, politics, and the rest of it. Uh, you know, certainly the state has approved gaming, liquor, and as has the county. So, by law, these are all appropriate requests and uh you know, moral judgments aside, my client's just trying to make use of the laws that are afforded to him and the best use of the real estate that he's got. Uh for those reasons, we would ask again for your renewed support of this request. Um and certainly I'm happy to address any other concerns. the uh for any establishment that has a video gaming license, do you have any idea how many of those operate without a license for alcohol consumption?

They can't. You cannot get a gaming license from the state of Illinois without a Well, I take that back. I will take that back. I misspoke. Truck stops that sell enough diesel fuel and fraternal orders, but show me a fraternal order that doesn't have a liquor license to go with it and I will be a shocked man. Uh but those two categories can by the state statute apply for a gaming license without a commensurate liquor license. But the intent when they created the statute was to allow again truck stops that sold of high volume of diesel fuel which already had amusement only machines, fraternal orders like Elks, Moose Lodges and such that already generally had entertainment gaming machines and taverns and restaurants which also had them to convert those entertainment machines to active gambling machines. So outside of truck stops and certain fraternal orders, everybody is required to have a poor license, which is why everything you see, if it's a Vinnies, a Seuzies, a G, even a gas station, which the county has taken a fairly hard stance that they do not want to see these things in gas stations proper, all have poor licenses. And if any of you have ever been inside of a Seuzies, a Johnny's or whatever, Betty's, there's not a lot of alcohol being purchased or consumed. It's people coming in to play the machines and then, you know, take off. But it is a statutory legal requirement that we come in for a liquor license, specifically a poor license, because our package liquor license is not sufficient.

I'm with you, Roger. The state's allowing two vices that prey on the poor and the weak and combining them together. But I don't think any moral judgment about gambling or drinking being wrong falls under our review as the zoning board. There's hundreds if not thousands of places people can drink and gamble. I the only thing that I find kind of bizarre, this is a moral thing, too, is it opens at 6:00 a.m. Dear God, I hope I never get to the point that I need a drink at 6:00 a.m. or want to gamble at 6 a.m.

If I ever get off of a midnight shift at 6:00 a.m. I was about to say to that point, as somebody whose father owned a bar for four decades and a bar put me through law school,

the number of people that used to get off third shift and would be right there when the bar doors opened at 6 a.m. would surprise you. But certainly that has become far less common uh throughout the course of my, you know, 40 years walking this earth. Uh but certainly I would agree. But if somebody's getting up at 900 p.m. and going to work an 8 hour shift and getting off at the wee hours of the morning, that's their after work time, just like ours is, you know, 3 4 5:00 or later, depending on your type of work. If you're working midnight shift, 6:00 a.m. is your evening.

Stan corrected. That shows you how naive I am living in my own little rope. I suppose 6 a.m. start would be far better than a 4 pm end. Particularly if you had a 6 am start. Nothing good happens after midnight. How do they have a poor license? What exactly? I know that's pouring liquor for them to serve since they don't have like a bar per se area. How does that work in

Yeah. So, typically in these types of establishments, and this is what we would be proposing for this establishment, um on our site plan or floor plan, you can kind of see the layout, but there is a counter area and behind that counter area, there is typically a cooler that has soda, water, you know, cans of beer, small porable b, you know, plastic containers of wine that are available for purchase. And that is seen at at Seuzies and that is considered applicable to a pore license because they have the option to buy that can of beer uh behind the the counter and drink it on premises which is why I was saying if it's can right now the special use would apply to the entire premises because that was the legal description submitted and we didn't have a precise legal description for the 300 and some odd square feet. But we would be more than happy if it pleased this commission and it influenced your thought process on the scope and scale of this to limit the on-site consumption area to just the gaming parlor area because quite frankly we don't have a desire to have people just wandering willy-nilly with an open can of Bud Light through the middle of the liquor store. That is not the intent. And again, on average, you would find any of these other places, they don't sell a lot of alcohol. You might get one or two people, but my 74 year old mother will literally hit up six different gas stations between my house and hers, and we probably live 10 miles apart because she comes over to check on the dogs or see how I'm doing. And, you know, it's something that she likes to do for a hobby on her way home. My mother I has probably drank 12 drinks that I can remember in my again 40 years of walking the face of God's green earth. So these are not places that a

lot of folks will go for the purpose of drinking. If you're going to go out to drink, you're usually going to go to a bar and that bar is going to have the same gaming machines that this would have. If that is your intent, this is not the venue you are going to go to do this in. This is something that is an ancillary thing. you know, you're going to pick up a bunch of alcohol for a party and the the spouse is with you and they want to go kill five or 10 minutes because they don't want to follow you around every aisle. they may go put a couple bucks in the machine or they're waiting for their chicken to get done, you know, but again, state law, which I've advocated repeatedly, the state should just change the law because they clearly do not have a problem in practice with these smaller facilities not selling a high volume of alcohol having these licenses. But it is still a statutory requirement that we have a pore license specifically, not just any liquor license, but it has to authorize the ability to pour.

Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Washington. I think You're welcome. Was there somebody else that wanted to speak? Oh, kind of got out of order. That should have been Wait one second. Are you a concerned citizen or objector? Did you raise your hand earlier? Okay, thank you. What are the disadvantages of sitting low? Okay, we're back up next week. I'll hold up the stairs. Okay.

Hi, my name is Danielle Gorman. I actually live on Cast Street at 2608 East Cast Street. My concern is that we're going to have people that are coming in for 15 to 30 minutes drinking their alcohol and getting on the streets where my children and grandchildren play. So, in the town of Ridgewood, there's 884 homes um I'm sorry, in the neighborhood, and roughly 46% of those homes have children under the age of 18. We've been trying to make a very big difference in our community and trying to have it be a more positive place for our children to play, learn, and grow. Um I we often go out in our own public um in our own neighborhood and towns, and we are talking to different people. were trying to get their children active. Um we're we're trying to incorporate different things for kids. Um I think that the the serving of the alcohol is a huge concern for that factor based upon now you have people that are coming in power drinking so that they can get their well either it's the 30 minutes while their chicken is cooking or the 20 or 30 minutes that they're there to spend their 20 to $50 or more in gambling. Um, so there's been a ton of accidents already in front of this establishment just with people pulling in and out of the liquor store. Um, I myself live on Cast Street and when we call 911, we have to wait for state police to come. Um, I'm not sure if that's the exact situation for this intersection, but I know that my house just a block and a half down the road has this problem. Um, so we also I'm concerned with where will these people be smoking? Is there a designated smoking area outside? Now, if we're also going to be serving alcohol, usually smoking and alcohol go hand in hand. So, I didn't see anything in the plans for a smoking section um to be added to outdoors because you can't smoke in

buildings in W County um or in the state of Illinois. Um, so I do ask that you guys consider the neighborhood children um that will be subjected to these things and drunk people being on our streets. People who are drinking a few drinks and then leaving the establishment while their blood alcohol level is rising because well, like he said, you're there for a short amount of time. You have your couple of drinks and then you're going back out on the streets. Thank you.

Thank you. So again, uh, as I've stated before, the amount of alcohol actually consumed at these types of establishments is relatively low. That being said, to acknowledge uh you know the the concern presented, if you look along Fast Street uh which also happens to be a state route, there is probably within a mile and a half to two miles of this location, at least a half dozen restaurants I can think of, all of which are serving liquor currently. And that's not including when you start going uh you know, north and south along some of the other streets that are in the area. You know, traffic can come from anywhere. You know, to the extent that somebody is already uh intoxicated when they enter a liquor store, you know, that's the same risk. And that's why any alcohol serving establishment has very very high and generally not the most cheap insurance uh that you've ever acquired to again guard against the known negative risks of alcohol consumption anywhere at any time in any location including one's own home. Uh because nothing stops somebody from drinking at their own place of residence and then going out into the world. But we can't base a zoning decision on the hypothetical of what somebody may or may not do at their home or what their alcohol tolerances or their desire to uh you know consume. Certainly my client is more than happy uh you know to work within any reasonable limitations. Uh

you know as we've represented the amount of alcohol actually consumed on premises for these types of establishments is low. you know, we're not going to be uh, you know, offering, you know, shots for sale where somebody can sit there and, you know, down five shots of fireball or whiskey or you name it and leaves in a right shape. You know, if somebody can, you know, shotgun a six-ack of beers in a 30 minute shot and that's what they want to do at a liquor store, I'm not sure that that person would be not shown the exit by way of the staff that is there if that was what they were attempting to do because it is a safety hazard to the other customers and to other people in the vicinity. This is not intended to be a bar in the traditional sense. It is not going to be a destination for somebody who is looking to drink. It is going to be again a added convenience and amenity to the people that are already trafficking through either to grab chicken or to pick up uh other beverages as they are there. And again, for those reasons, just as was the case when we came through for the actual liquor license itself, we believe that we have taken proper precautions and you know, the county's posture towards these requests has changed, which is why I believe another liquor uh store uh was it Falcon Liquors, received the same permits that we are here asking for today. uh and that was approved by this commission and by the county board as well. So, we're just trying to tie up loose ends by coming back for this special use permit today. Um, and for those reasons, again, not to say that the concerns aren't

valid, but they don't appear to be, you know, as applicable to this use as they would be if he would, you know, if the request was to turn this whole building into a bar and a pool hall with only 20 parking spaces. That's a little bit of a different request than what we're here to talk about today. We have no questions, sir. All right. Thank you. Only allowed to speak once, sir.

Mr. Chairman,

move on the entire on case number ZC-26-027 and S-26-017. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, motion for approval for case numbers D6 26-0217 S-26-017, special use of permit for a bar tavern. Three conditions with the three conditions. I have a motion and a second. May I have a roll call, please? Kim, did you make that second? Okay. Thank you. Kimberly Mitchell,

yes. John Kefner, yes. Roger Bettton, yes. Matt Garland, yes. Lewis Navaret, yes. Karen Warick, yes. And Chairman Hugh Stippen, yes. Passes.

Thank you. for them. The next case tonight is ZC-26-019 S-26-012 and V-26-124. Uh Margaret Kenny is going to be our presenter. Okay, so the next two zoning cases, this case and the next case are actually right next to each other. Um, so I will jump into this one and then the next one I'll probably curse over some of the slides because you should be familiar with this area. Um, so this property takes place in Troy Township. The zoning case is ZC26019. It's vacant property on the east side of County Line Road and south of the southeast corner of Black Road and County Line Road in Juliet. Basically, it is south of the parcel subject of ZC 26018. The owner of this property is the Grand Prairie Water Commission, which is a six member commission comprised of um six communities um where Missy Mormon Schumacher is the village president of Shanahan, Raymond Simma is the mayor of Crest Hill, Terry Dearscy um is mayor of Juliet, Frederick Offererman is the village president of Manuka, and John Noick is the mayor of Romeoville, and CC Dold is the mayor of Shorewood. Um they are all the appointed representatives of the Grand Prairie Water Commission. The

agent is Allison Swisser um who is the program director of the Grand Prairie Water Commission. And the attorney here tonight is Barb Adams of Donna and Rose PC. So, this applicant is requesting um is the first of two cases dealing with the Grand Prairie Water Commission Lake Michigan waterline infrastructure project which is bringing Lake Michigan water to these six communities of Shanahan, Manuka, Shorewood, Romeoville, Juliet, and Crest Hill. And this property will be the project's second facility uh for intermediate storage associated with this project. So, water system infrastructure is classified as a major public utility under our zoning ordinance and requires special use approval. Um, additionally, this infrastructure would require security measures to ensure that the water um is not impacted negatively and requires the applicant to install a security fence um that would have barb wire on top of a 7 foot high chain link fence. So, the applicant is here requesting a fence variance to allow that 8- foot fence. So, here is a photo taken from the Grand Prairie Water Commission's website. Um, this shows the proposed water line coming from the city of Chicago. And you can see that circle area is where the subject property is and the subject of the following zoning case as well. So looking at the aerial you can see the next zoning KCC26 is just north of the subject property and this property is currently vacant. Um it is currently agricultural land as is the northern parcel. Um the property is located south of the southeast corner of Black Road and County Line Road. Um, the city of Juliet lies to the northwest at the

corner of Black and County line and the village of Shorewood is approximately half a mile east along Black Road. The property is just under 20 acres and has 937 ft of frontage along County Line Road. Um the Prairie Water Commission was formed in 2020 or purchased this property in 2024 um creating this current parcel and was part of a larger A1 property um prior to that. This site is not within a facility planning area. Um but the Joliet facility planning area is adjacent to the northwest um at that corner of Black and County line. Um the property does not have any flood zones or map wetlands, but you can see from aerials there are some drainage swailes visible in the northern portion of the site. Um traffic volumes in this area roughly show about 6,000 vehicles per day on Black Road and 8,900 um on County Line north of Black Road and 6,000 south of County Line. Um and then of course US Route 52 is just south of this. Um the parcel to the east was approved for a commercial solar energy facility following courtmandated action that was approved at county board this past April. So on the screen we have the site plan. So again this property um is proposing to develop the second intermediate water storage facility for the regional water system. Um development will occur in phases beginning with water storage and pumping facilities and then having some outdoor storage affiliated with this use. Um water towers and tanks are exempt from height limits under our current zoning ordinance. Um per the site plan, the future pump station building would be located more than 500 ft from County Line Road and the water tower would be

approximately 750 ft. storm water facilities would be planned along that eastern portion of the site. Um so most of the development is going to be on the eastern half of this 20 acre parcel. Um allowing for the front area to kind of remain open for future development or to keep um open at the time. storm water facilities um would be required and the plan includes an 8ft tall security fence which is indicated by that red line on the property line. Um the variance being requested is to permit that site development building permits would be required to make sure that they comply with the county codes if applied or if approved. The applicant has two years to establish the permits necessary um with an extension option available. So the zoning map on the screen, you can see the area is mixed with agricultural um predominantly in this area, but we do have some single family residential within the city of Juliet. Shorewood is um just off the map to the southeast and east. And some photos just looking at the subject property. So this is looking from county line at the property and this is looking towards um Kendall County. So looking west, north, and south, the criteria by which special use permits are evaluated are on the screen. The in-depth analysis is provided in your staff reports, but if I could provide an elevator summary um of the request, the project would strengthen the public health and safety by delivering a reliable water supply to the six communities participating in the Grand Prairie Water Commission and supporting uh the commission's ability to store and distribute water to its residents. The site will serve as the second intermediary storage facility for the project and commission improving service efficiency and it's located in

primarily agricultural area with nearby residential growth and planned developments proposed and desired by the municipalities. The project will help enable this future housing need by providing the essential infrastructure. The site will meet all county requirements for utilities drainage access with no negative impact to surrounding properties and generally will comply with the zoning requirements aside from the fence variance being requested. And again with the variances the criteria are on the screen and the in-depth analysis is in the staff report. But again to briefly summarize, staff supports the variance due to the unique circumstance that it's a critical public water facility that requires enhanced security. Um the 8-foot fence would slightly exceed the A1 zoning limits of 7 ft. And this need is not selfre or the need is not self-created and aligns with the standards in other districts where this type of use would be permitted and reszoning to that district would be inappropriate in this area. The variance would not change the area's character, harm nearby properties, or impact the safety or property values. It actually does the opposite by improving security and protects the reliable water access for the community and emergency services. Um, regarding agency comments of the agencies notified, none objected. The natural resource information report obtained from the Wil South Cook soil and water conservation district mentioned the field tiles found should be considered capable of carrying subsurface water and should be rerouted rather than plugged and use erosion control measures to prevent runoff from the site. Most of this will be required at time of permitting through our um storm water and water resource ordinance review by our engineering department. A Lisa score was calculated and found that the property scored 179, which places it

in the county areas and productive farmland. And the EcoAT identified protected resources that may be in the vicinity of the proposed action, but the Department of Natural Resources further evaluated the information and concluded that adverse effects are unlikely. So staff is recommending approval with two conditions. um the first being the typical site inspection and the second that it be transferable to future property owners as well as approval of the fence um requirement. And I'm happy to answer any questions. And I know the applicant is here and does have a combined slideshow for the two projects. Are there any questions for anyone?

Thank you very much. Are there any concerned citizens or objectors to this case?

One. Okay. Not with the applicant care to come up. We have no concerned citizens or objectives to this case. I'm not that tall. Good afternoon. Um, I guess it's evening. Good evening. I'm Barbara Adams. I'm an attorney with the firm Donna Hugh and Rose. And here on behalf of both the Grand Prairie Water Commission and the city of Joliet in connection with these two adjoining properties as as um Margarite has explained um we have a short um presentation and I'm if you can go to the next slide just introduce the team. We have Allison Swisser who is the program director for the Grand Prairie Water Commission's alternative water source program and she is also the director of public utilities for the city of Gillette. We also have Teresa O'Grady with the firm Crawford, Murphy, and Tilly. She is the co-program manager for the alternative water source program. Um, we'll give you just a short overview of the commission, a little bit of how we got here, um, and Joliet's problem with, uh, water supply that was discovered and how that has led to where we are today. and we will ask that you incorporate the first 12 slides of this presentation into the next docket as well if you would. So, I'll turn it over to Ellison. All right. Thank you again. My name is Allison Swisser. I'm the director of public utilities for the city of Joliet and I'm acting as the program director for the Grand Prairie uh water commission. So, you go to the next slide. I'm just going to quickly provide some background. Um many people find it surprising that in our seemingly water

abundant region that uh people are running out of water but that's simply the case of uh what is happening here in Joliet and the surrounding communities that our existing um deep aquifer is not sustainable um to provide water to our current customers or our future customers. Um the Illinois State Water Survey did modeling that found by 2030 we would not be able to meet our maximum day demand. So this is a very real issue that needed um immediate attent attention. Go to the next slide please. So the city of Juliet uh began a multi-phase alternative water source study in 2018 to look at all possible alternatives um for for water sources and we looked at this not only for the Joliet city of Joliet but also for the entire region. Ultimately, after two and a half years of studying the issue, the Goliet City Council selected purchasing water from the city of Chicago as the most sustainable and reliable option um for the region. Go to the next slide. So, we we knew right away that we needed to start working with our other um fellow municipalities in the area. We um talked to um others and ultimately worked with uh six communities to pass legislation uh the regional water commissions act in 2021 that would allow for the formation of the Grand Prairie Water Commission uh in 2024. So we've done significant outreach to our local, county, state, and federal legislators who have all supported the commission and its mission. Go ahead to the next slide. So, as um Margaret introduced, the Grand Prairie Water Commission consists of six member communities. Um they are Shanahan, Crest Hill, Joliet, Manuka, Romeoville, and Shore and Shorewood. Um the commission purchases water from the city of Chicago and then will sell it to the members who then distribute that water to their customers. Um this uh commission will serve over 250,000

people, uh the majority of which are uh Will County residents. Um there's an agreement between the water commission and Joliet by which Joliet manages the implementation of the program. So that's why I'm here today acting as the program director for the Grand Prairie Water Commission. Okay, can I go ahead next slide please? So now just to get into a high level overview of what the alternative water source program um consists of. Go ahead to the next slide. Um, this map just shows all the improvements that are necessary to bring water from Chicago out to the Joliet area. The improvements include 16 to 66 in transmission made, three pumping stations, storage facilities, and water delivery structures which span over 60 miles and go through four counties, Cook, Will, Kendall, and Grundy. Um, we come ac also cross through 14 municipalities and numerous right-of-way entities. And so we recognize that we're um likely a burden on many communities as we pass through them, but we've had uh great outreach to all those um involved parties and are, you know, on our way to successfully implementing the the program. Um the majority of the commit transmission main is located in county and state rightaway pursuant to our uh commission statute and the construction will occur in 27 different um construction contracts phased over the next five years. and we're proud to say that we are on track for delivery of water in 2030. The system is being designed to allow for future expansion. I think we all know the Will County area has lots of room for future development and so the pipeline is being constructed with that in mind. Our program budget is 1.446 billion. Um and that's being funded with state and federal uh lowinterest loans and revenue bonds. Okay, one more slide, please. Um so yeah, just to update, we the construction is underway. We did break

ground in early 2025 um with a tunnel extension in Chicago. Since that time, we've had three additional contracts that have been awarded, and we anticipate that work in W County will begin um later this month. However, you won't see the majority of the construction impacting your commute to work until um next spring. Okay, go ahead. Next slide. Um, we have a lot of information available for anyone who wants to learn more. We've always been very committed to transparency and stakeholder engagement. The commission has a website with a document library, newsletters, and also a construction map that will provide real-time updates for each project during construction. Okay, next slide. Um, and then just specifically jumping into the site that is the matter at hand tonight. um really good in intergovernmental coordination between Jolie at the Grand Prairie Water Commission and Shorewood. Um all three entities had a need for water uh facilities at this location and worked together uh to acquire the the property. Um Juliet has acquired 20 acres. The water commission has acquired 20 acres and the village of Shorewood has acquired um 10 acre 10 acres. And as Margaret said, this was purchased in August of 2024. And um this location was ideal uh based on the hydraulic needs of each community and the proximity um to other facilities. Uh so at this time I'm going to turn it over to Terresa Ogrady who will speak more specifically about the Grand Prairie Water Commission's application for special use.

Thank you. Good evening everyone. Theresa Grey with Crawford Murphy and Tilly. I am the co-program manager for the alternative water source program. So, I'm going to talk to you specifically about the site and the request for special use for major public utility and variation for the fence height on a portion of the property. Next slide. So, this is the Grand Prairie Water Commission intermediate storage facility number two. Um, so if you look on the screen, I tried to color code it a little bit. Um, for this site, the access will be via the Joliet property to the north. Um, this is uh the 20 acre site just south of the 20 acre Joliet site. Um, in uh purple there is the initial elevated water storage tank. That's a 1.5 milliongal tank in that location. um as well as a future uh storage facility, a future pump station in uh green there, and then a layown and storage area. And on the east side of the site is the fenced in portion um uh that that the variation is being requested for. And so this site um will initially consist of a 1.5 million gallon elevated storage tank and a meter vault with the ability to bypass the tank uh if needed and then the provisions for a future pumping station um when required by water system hydraulics. And so the the um gravel layown and storage area will be general purpose during construction. But once construction is comp complete, the commission anticipates storing pipe sections and various sizes for transmission main repair um and and other pertinances uh for future use. So um further into the future there is that

potential for the pump station and then as I noted um in the yellow there for the security of the facilities there's a uh the site is fenced um with a chain link fence of 7t tall with barbed wire on the top top for a total height of 8 ft. And we recognize that this is um uh a portion of this is in the rear yard which is a variance um and therefore uh and that's that portion highlighted in yellow and therefore um this has been requested as part of the application uh for for a variance. Next slide. So this is a little bit more information on the tank and the fencing. Um on the left hand side there shows a section of the tank. It's a 1.5 million gallon um steel storage tank with a height of approximately 145 ft. It's uh considered a water spheroid style tank which just means it's a tank with the ball uh on the top that then stores the water. And on the right hand side there is showing a cross-section and elevation of the fence um being uh requested for the variation. Uh this is a chain link fence 7 ft tall with barbed wire on the top for a total height of 8 ft and um this is required for security of the facilities and um um requesting a variation for that uh for that height in the rear yard. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Barb Adams. Hello again. Next slide, please. Margarite has reviewed with you this the

one too many. Can you go back one? Perfect. Thank you. Um this is the the standards for special use. We believe that that the application fully complies with all of these standards. We have extended written material in our written application. I won't read that to you tonight. Margaret did a great job in the staff report of summarizing um all of that in great detail and we concur um with staff's findings and recommendation. The next slide, please. also with the variation standards for the fence in that one section along as Teresa pointed out along the east side of the property. Um we've submitted detailed written testimony. Margarit staff report covers all of these points. We concur with her findings. Um and we request approval of both the special use and the variation and the two conditions recommended are acceptable to the commission. Happy to answer any questions.

I have no questions. Anyone have any questions? Thank you very much. We have no objection, so we're going to go ahead and vote right away. Um, I would like a motion on case number ZC-26-019 at all. Uh so someone prepared to offer a motion.

Mr. Chairman, for case ZC-26-019, item S-26-012, I'd like to make a motion for a special use permit for a major public utility with two conditions. Second. I have a motion and second. May I have a roll call, please? Kimberly Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner, yes. Roger Bentonhausen, yes. Matt Garland, yes. Lewis Navarat, yes. Karen Warick, yes. And Chairman Houston,

Mr. Chairman, for the same case, I'd like to make a motion for a variance for maximum fence height within a rear yard setback from 7 feet to 8 ft. Second. Kimberly Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner. Yes. Roger Bettinhousen. Yes. Matt Garland. Yes. Lewis Navaret. Yes. Karen Warick. Yes. And Chairman Houston.

Okay. So, we're voting on the second case also. 018. No presentation. No presentation. Well, no. I do. I can eat. Okay.

So, very similar to the last request. Um, this is a special use permit for a major public utility. Um, this would be the city of Juliet's property. So, this is again Troy Township. It is the southeast corner of Black Road and County Line Road. Um, it is the north corner um 20 acres. the owner being the city of Juliet. You have Mayor Darcy, Councilman uh Larry Hug, Caesar Cardinius, Joe Clemente, and Juan Moreno, and Councilwoman Pat Mudroom, Sher Rearen, Susanna Ibara, and Jan Halmus Quilman are the um entities responsible for the city of Juliet. Again, you have Allison Swisser, who is the director of public utilities with the city, and Barb Adams of Donahghue and Rose, PC. And this property is not only working with um some of the water transmission infrastructure with the Grand Prairie Water Commission, they are also looking at operating the city of Juliet's public works facility and water storage facility um at this site. So it is a little bit more public works sited um as opposed to being a um intermediary storage facility. So this again very similar to the last presentation um this property is that north corner and again it is currently just farmland. So this site plan on this property you can see um access from black road to the north. It would provide access to the Grand Prairie Water Commission to the south. Um they will have above ground storage tanks. Their detention pond will be in the north west corner. um they will have their maintenance storage um garage on the site as well as some outdoor storage associated with the public works area and then that red dotted line also proposes that variance request for the 8oot fence along that eastern property line. Again, this use and development is proposed towards the eastern half of the property.

So, very similarly, the same zoning as the previous zoning case. Um and then just some photos. This is looking from Black Road looking at the subject site. Um the next are just looking along Black Road. So we have northwest into Kendall County with the residential subdivision there. Um north and then looking east. And then this is also looking along county line along their um western property line. So again, very similarly to the previous um special use request, the criteria are provided on the screen and I would stand by the same summary as the previous zoning um action regarding their impacts. Um so this project would strengthen the public health and safety in the area by delivering the reliable water source that they are in planning for. Um it is located primarily in an agricultural area but the nearby prot uh desire for residential growth and plan development. This project will help enable that future housing um by providing that essential infrastructure which is the water service. Um the site will be required to meet county requirements for utilities drainage and access and staff does not see any negative impact to the surrounding properties um and generally would comply with the zoning regulations of the A1 district. So all the applicable setbacks 50 ft from property lines would be required. Um aside from the variance request for the fence regarding the variance again like the last um zoning case um there is a unique circumstance. Again it's a critical public water facility that needs enhanced security and that 8ft fence which is only slightly exceeding the A1 zoning district would provide that. Um it would not change the area's character or harm nearby properties or impact the

safety. it would essentially do the opposite. Um that being said, agency comments were very similar to the previous. Um the Will South Cook Soil and Water Conservation District calculated the lease score at 184 on this property, which still places it in the county areas and productive farmlands. And again, the EcoAT identified protected resources in the area, but determined um that adverse effects were unlikely. and staff with this one just like the last is recommending approval with two conditions. Again, very similar conditions as the last one as well as approval of the fence variance request. And I'm happy to answer any questions. I have no question. Sorry, John.

Yeah. Well, I was going to ask this uh in the last case, but then I realized you're probably the best person to answer this. So, the Lisa score 184 on this one, 179 on the other one. Yet both NRA reports say that the entire 20.1 acres is prime farmland. So I've been taken to task because I'm not protecting prime farmland and stopping it from being converted from non-aggricultural use. You as the land use uh reviewer have stated that you approve this. Why can't you deny it? Because it's prime farmland. Why can't you recommend denial? Can you recommend a denial? I mean, in terms of the criteria that I would have to analyze this, whether or not it's prime farmland is not one of the criteria that fits perfectly in the criteria um listed. It's more looking, you know, the existing uses of what's already permitted in the area. So, you could continue farming on adjacent properties if this parcel was developed. um the establishment of this use would not impede normal and orderly development. So they're more geared towards development and not keeping it agricultural farmlands. Um this area is heavily planned within the municipalities if you look at their comprehensive plans and future land use for residential development. So even if prime farmland were protected in this area, should these properties be annexed in, the village could come in and reszone the property and develop them. Um, and this is really to provide a benefit to the community rather than the farmland in the sense of you need water essentially to live in the area and farming also requires water. So the quality of the soil, the improvement of the soil has no bearing in your review

pretty much based on yeah the criteria before us.

Speaking from firsthand knowledge and having built the home across the street from there, there was a time in my life I might have considered killing somebody to have soil as good as this. If if there was a if there was a way for you to find me a way to vote no on these two, I would have been able to do it knowing that, but that's so that's kind of what I wanted to hear you say. It's not in your review to tell me that. So, I will address for the neighbors property or for the neighbors, right? The setback fence height. Do we know where that fence is? How far off the property line? I probably should ask that on the last one, too. Um the last one I believe it's close to being on the property line. For this particular one I do believe it's about 25 ft in. Um so there is a little bit of room with this property

that probably should have been addressed because prop a fence line on the property line really means they're probably going to be trespassing or using the neighbor's property when they ever do future maintenance. But um that's already passed. Just passes pretty hard with a foot of razor wire on top. Yeah. Okay. Oh, and then the other one, I would believe the city of Joliet is Kitty Corner. Mhm. Why are these not being annexed into the city of Joliet? Do you know that?

Um, in terms of being Kitty Quarter, I do not believe they are close enough to annex quite yet, this particular project, at least within the city of Joliet. And I do believe they are trying to get this project underway so that they can start connecting all the pieces so that they can be turning on Lake Michigan water in 2030. I do believe annexation for the city of Gilad parcel is in the future. It's just a matter of can they start developing the site before the annexation process occurs. So these are considered public property. This isn't a private entity. It's Yeah, this particular property is owned by the city of Juliet. Okay. It's just not annexed within the city of Juliet. That's it.

Any other questions? Thank you, Mary. Are there any concerned citizens or objectors to this case? There are not. Okay. Mr. Chairman, given staff approval on case ZC26-018, S26-010. Motion for approval for a special use permit for a major public utility with with two conditions. With two conditions. Second. I have a motion and second. Have a roll call. Kimberly Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner. Yes. Roger Bettinhousen. Matt Garland. Yes. Lewis Navarat. Yes. Karen Warick.

Yes. And Chairman Houston. Approve. Mr. Chairman. The same case ending in 018 variance 26-119. Motion of approval for a varian for maximum fence height with inside yard setback from 7 feet to 8 feet east side. Second. I have a motion and second. May have a roll call. Kimberly Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner. Yes. Roger Betttonhousen. Yes. Matthew Garland. Yes. Lewis Navarat. Yes. Karen Warick. Yes. And Chairman Husten. Yes. Approved. like to point out to the law enforcement here. I was joking about killing for a farm, but I would have coveted it very well.

What are you in jail for? Bad bad wording here.

Our next next case is our last case tonight. It's ZC-26-0178- S-26-00009 S-26-016 V-26-115 V-26-116 and V-26117 and finally V-26118 And this will be given to us by Jesus Presto. Yes.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Yes. I'll be going over zoning case ZC26017. The owner of the property is Tibetina LLC with John Malone having 50% interest and Una Malone having another 50% interest. The agent for this parcel is Harry Marwell of US Solar. And as we mentioned, the applicant is requesting a special use permit for a commercial solar energy facility that applies to the entire 90 acre parcel and a special use permit for battery energy storage facility as well. And since the zoning case consists of two parcels and variances are parcel specific, the applicant is requesting variances for plant heights and number of required mowings for each parcel. So here we have a view of the subject property outlined in red. Per GIS aerials, the property is being actively farmed. The parcel is within Green Garden Township. The village of Frankfurt is the only municipality located within a one and a half mile radius of the subject property. Here we have a zoning map of the property again outlined in red. The subject property is zoned A1. Per the PL of survey, the property is a total of 90 acres in size with 1,06 feet of lot frontage along Stunko Road. And this property is deemed to be a conforming A1Zone property. Here we have a quick screenshot showing the plan of show property. As you can see here, it kind of shows the two parcels that combined will consist of this zoning case. Here we have a screenshot showing the site plan, the concept site plan for the project. The applicant is proposing a 4.98 megawatt commercial solar edge vicinity with approximately 17,225 panels. The panels will be mounted on a single access tracking system allowing them to rotate throughout the day to

capture the sun. The applicant is proposing access to Stunkle Road. An access permit will be required at the time of permitting. Road authority approval will also be required at the time at the time of permitting before the permit can be fully issued. Equipment pads are proposed for the site that will contain both the inverters and transformers. All equipment pans are proposed to be centrally located within the parcel. A noise study was submitted as part of this application stating that the expected noise levels will fall under the Illinois Pollution Control Board noise regulations. This site will also include a battery energy storage facility or storage system sorry per the site plan that system will also be centrally located within the parcel. The applicant will be leasing the subject property based on a lease agreement. The facility could exist on a property for approximately 20 years with the option to extend the lease for four times for for five years each. A glare analysis was also submitted as part of this application using the for solar software. The report analyzed 25 homes as part of the study. The report concluded that the home located immediately south of the project was anticipated to receive green glare at a certain height. Staff does note that the report does not account for any of the proposed landscaping screening. The applicant and developer is proposing landscaping screening along the southern portion of the property that will help mitigate any potential glare from the project. And just for further explanation of what green glare is, green glare is typically associated with the glints, bouncing off car windshields, windows on a home, or similar events such as reflecting off a pond or a water surface. The applicant submitted correspondence with KMED showing progress towards an internet connection agreement. Staff has added a condition requiring the submittal of the completed intercrection agreement at the time of permitting. and the applicant also entered into an AMO agreement with the Illinois Department of Agriculture on February 18th, 2026.

Now for a few pictures of the property. First, we have the view looking south of the subject property. Here we have the view looking at the northern port portion of the property. Here we have the view looking at the southern portion of the property. This is kind of the areas where panels are proposed to be installed. Here we have the view looking south at the adjacent property across Stunko Road. I think you mean north.

Yeah, sorry. The view looking east down Stunkle Road. The view looking west down Stunkle Road. And this slide shows the everything that is required for a complete application to move forward for public hearing. An application is not considered complete until approvals are received for each items that are listed on the screen. So this slide shows the specialist criteria and standards. But due to equity solar versus county of Grundy, the list of specialist criteria is not applicable to commercial solar energy facilities. But they are applicable to battery storage energy facilities. So I will go more into depth on that. A full copy of the staff analysis for the special use permit for battery energy storage facilities is included in the staff report. But to quickly summarize, staff finds that the special use permit will not be detrimental to the to or indigenous public safety, morals, comfort, or general welfare. The site plan shows that the proposed battery system will be over 1,000 ft from the rideway, 900 ft from the eastern property line, 550 ft from the western property line, and over 900 ft from the southern property line. It is staff's opinion that the proposed special use will not be injurious to the neighborhood. A battery energy storage system is a low impact use to the surrounding area. The submitted noise study also analyzed the potential noise from the battery storage facility and concluded that the noise levels would be in compliance with the Illinois pollution control board regulations. Staff finds a special use will not impede the normal and orderly development of the area. The battery storage units are designed with multiple manage systems that monitor the status of the system itself and could be shut down in the event of a failure. And finally, if the special if the special use permit is approved, the applicant will have to adhere to the regulations outlined in section 155-9.220 of the Will County zoning ordinance,

which relates to battery energy storage facilities. Now, to quickly go over the variance every criteria, again, this is a variance for plant height and number of required mowings. A more detailed analysis can be found in the staff reports. But again, to quickly summarize, the state encourages commercial solar energy facilities to use powder friendly plant species native to Illinois. For the native plant species to be able to grow effectively, they need to grow higher than 13 in. The applicant did submit a preliminary operations and maintenance plan as part of their submitt outlining how mowing will be done. Staff will require a final version of this operations and maintenance plan at the time of permitting. Per agency comments, staff received initial comments from the village of Frankfurt stating that the parcel is intended for future single family use and a and a solo farm is not consistent with that plan. The Frankfurt Fire Protection District also sent comments stating that due to the battery battery storage proposal, a water storage tank on site will be required. After the staff report was published, staff did receive an objection letter from Green Garden Township. Staff also received a petition with se with several signatures showing opposition to the project. Both of those were sent out as a memo. The NRI report gave the property a Lisa score of 154 out of 300 placing it in the county areas and productive farmland category. As part of the permitting process, staff will require the applicant to work with the soil conservation district to develop a conservation plan. With that said, staff staff has recommended approval of the specialist permit for commercial sun energy facility with the four conditions listed on the screen and approval of the specialist permit for battery energy storage facility with the same four conditions and finally approval of all four variances. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Has anyone any questions? No.

We have no questions. Thank you very much. Are there any concerned citizens or objectors to this case? Okay, please hold your hands up so I could get an account. All right, thank you very much. Um, may we hear from the principles of this case? Good evening, gentlemen. Please give your name.

Good evening. My name is Harry Marwell. Jesus, I believe there's a a presentation. You don't mind pulling that up? I'm not trying to limit in any way your presentation, but I want you to know that we've seen 60 or 70 of these. So, okay, we have some good idea of what you're presenting.

Okay, I I'll try to shorten it as it goes to alleviate any redundancy. Um, but thank you everyone for being here. Again, my name is Harry Marwell. I'm a senior developer here with United States Solar and the applicant on behalf of our land owner John Malone. Appreciate everyone coming here tonight to discuss this proposal. Um again just to reiterate it's called USS Talis solar. Uh it's a code compliant 4.98 megawatt AC community solar project with the DC coupled battery system. Um altogether the site will encompass 45 acres of unincorporated land in Green Garden Township along Stunkle Road between South 88th and South 80th Avenue. Um, this project is limited in scale and involves a single land owner. I know you guys have seen quite a few cases recently with super large projects. I just want to make sure that we're aware that this is quite a bit smaller than those. Um, so before I dive into the details on the project site um, and the work we've done to date, I just want to take a few minutes to provide some information on US Solar as a company. Um, we're an employeeowned developer, owner, operator and finance here of solar and storage projects. We're a full service provider handling everything from the beginning to the end of the project life cycle. Uh we've been in business more than a decade, have developed 25 projects across the states. We're a very well experienced team here. Um again, we are quite unique. Uh we're privately held, employee owned, uh with projects and teams based right here in the Midwest. Um we're headquartered in Minneapolis, but my team is out of Chicago. Um, and we're proud of these local routes and believe this enables us to be more present in the communities we partner with. Go to the next slide if you will. Uh, this is just a map of of the areas we develop in. Um, keep going. Um, so with that, I just want to highlight uh something that's super important to us as a company um, and this project specifically, and that is

land stewardship. Um, we go, this is something we take very seriously. we go above beyond to ensure that local pollinators are planted, soil and water is treated with the um immense respect and attention that it deserves. Um we submitted a vegetation management plan with this application and the site uh will be planted with deep rooted native vegetation. Uh this will improve soil structure and reduce runoff. Um this will not only capture more storm water but preserve the land for future farming while enhancing local uh air and water quality. go to the next one. Um, so I understand traditional large-scale agricultural activities may not be practical during the temporary use of this of this solar project, but plenty of other agricultural activities are. Um, and we're actively exploring those on sites of ours across the state and country. Um, we have active sites with bees producing honey and sheep grazing the field. Um, I'm pretty confident that if possible, this site would also employ these methods to keep the agricultural utility. Keep going. Um, so just want to take a few minutes to walk through some of the details of the project site. Um, as already mentioned, this is the location between South 88th and South 80th a um, along Stunkle Road just west of the highway. Um, we've gotten a lot of questions about why we site projects and and kind of what the criteria are. Just want to briefly touch on that. Um, one is just access to sunlight on ideal land. Um, so flat open ground that is dry. Uh, the site accomplishes that. Um, favorable electrical infrastructure is a really important piece to the puzzle here. Um, just like any other good, we need to get our product to market. Um, and electrical infrastructure is how that's done. uh to be able to build an economically viable project that supplies the cheap electricity. Um a site must be located close to infrastructure that has the capacity to carry it to the end user uh without

involving extensive upgrades from the utility. Um third is just uh relatively close to demand. The closer we are, the less strain the transmission system encounters um and just makes the project run more efficiently. Um and then of course um a a willing uh landowner partner. No project can happen without a landowner partner um who wants to develop a project and we rely on these uh private independent deals um to get projects developed. I can move on to the next. Um so just want to touch a little bit on the interconnection side of the project here. Um this pro and talk about the comed upgrades that are required. Um as I mentioned before, one of the most important aspects um is ensuring the electrical distribution lines can carry the generation we produce um and get that to the end user efficiently. Um oftent times slight upgrades are needed to um make sure the infrastructure can handle the increased generation and we're solely responsible for all those upgrades for the cost of those upgrades um and to understand what upgrades are needed. We work with COMED directly um and in their interconnection Q study process where we I'm sure you guys are familiar essentially um send them information about our project and they do a study on the on the surrounding lines um and come back with a cost estimate um usually that cost estimate is what uh makes a project feasible. So it's really important to site a project close to where the electric uh capacity can actually get onto the system and end up at the end user in an efficient way. Um so as you can see here uh the existing infrastructure um at the substation is where the capacity is. Uh that line ends a little bit north of the project and it's our responsibility to build that line with comed um and fund that infrastructure all the way down to our project site. Go to the next one. Um so the upgrades that are required here um again are are

minimal um and are on our own dime. This is a diagram kind of showcasing what uh KMed is already under an agreement to do. Um we've been working directly with them. This is a partnership with KMED and they've expressed that this is um a feasible design and uh we'll be building that imminently. Uh so I do want to touch on community engagement. This has been a really important piece of the development work. we um and we received a wide range of feedback throughout this process that has been thoughtfully incorporated into this project design. Uh we put forth a considerable amount of effort to reach out to stakeholders and nearby residences to ensure everyone was made fully aware. Um in our meeting with the uh land use staff in January, they noted that um previous projects may not have emphasized this quite as much. So, uh, we put, uh, like I said, a considerable amount of effort into making sure that everyone was aware of the project and we're being, uh, fully transparent. So, that started with, um, an open house at the at the Shorewood Troy Public Library. Um, to get the word out, we sent mailers, uh, my team and I directly knocked on surrounding residences doors to make sure that everyone was made aware. Um after that open house, we were made aware by some green garden um folks that maybe a second open house would be more beneficial uh just because of this location of the first one um and the timing. So we obliged with that, sent out more mailers and um hosted a second open house that was very well attended and uh we walked away feeling confident that people really got a chance to interface directly with us and ask a lot of uh really thoughtful questions. Um so also throughout this process when we met with the land use staff they provided a document that had recommended meetings with different stakeholders throughout the community. Um not only do we meet those but we far exceeded them. Uh the

full list of of the people we met with is on that slide there. Um but we really did go above and beyond and try to meet with everyone that was willing to talk with us and incorporate their feedback into the design. go to the next one. Um, so on that note, we also do put our money where our mouth is. Um, US Solar intends to invest thousands in the community through our community development fund. Uh, this is still work in progress, but um, once the project is approved, we would greatly appreciate the board's uh, consideration on where to allocate those funds. Uh, throughout our history as a company, we've donated over a million dollars to communities that we're lucky enough to call partners um, and are excited to do that here as well. Next slide, please. Um, so throughout the community engagement process, we did receive quite a bit of comment about what the community is actually going to get out of this project. Um, most notably the answer to that question is a considerable increase in property taxes. Um, so right now, as you can see, the uh estimated property taxes as is just under $1,500 with uh the school district 207U not even getting $1,000. Uh with the proposed development, this would increase the school district specifically to uh over $33,000. Um that is a considerable increase and something that can have real impact on everybody. Um so we're very excited about that. Um, furthermore, the subscriber benefits um give the community an opportunity to save at least 10% on their electric bill. Um, this is something that over the course of the project lifespan can add up to real considerable dollars um and is a um a very tangible benefit for everybody in the community. Um, so now I just want to touch on the details of the project. I know Jesus kind of already went over this um but just to reiterate the project will um

encompass approximately 45 acres of unincorporated land in Green Garden Township. It's going to be set back more than 1100 ft south of Stunkle Road. The remaining 45 acres to the north will continue to be farmed. Um and then again this is a 4.98 megawatt AC project which will power roughly 1,00 to,500 homes. Uh just kind of walking through it. You can see there's an access road coming down from Stunkle Road on the northwest corner of the property and stretching approximately 1,200 feet south to reach the fenced area containing the panels. The point of interconnection will also be on the northwest corner and the project will connect to the extended line along Stunkle Road. As uh we just discussed previously, uh the fence will stretch around the entire site and have a vegetation screen on the southern boundary. Within that fence, you'll find the rows of panels, the battery units, um the piles, excuse me, um and the access road with native plantings throughout. Um the panels will be supported by zinc galvanized steel piles driven into the ground and held in place by friction. Uh there are no plans to use concrete to support these piles. Uh these panels will be roughly 8 to 10 feet tall and track the sun as it goes across the sky, which further increases efficiency. Uh the battery units on site will be DC coupled system which means that peak generation electricity will be able to be stored in the battery and discharged onto the grid at a later time effectively allowing the project to output electricity further into the evening. Uh these battery units go through rigorous testing to ensure safety and have multiple levels of redundancy built in to avoid and proactively defend against any unexpected event. These systems are governed by uh the National Fire and Electrical Codes and we'll be we will be coordinating directly with the local fire protection district as we get closer to building this project. Um we have a dedicated in-house team that is responsible for the integration of these units, meaning they procure, assemble, operate, and maintain the system. We have a proven track record of safety and have successfully built the first two

solar facilities um in Illinois that contain batteries on site. Uh this layout is in compliance with all setback requirements and in all cases we'll exceed them. The uh minimum setback requirements are 50 feet and as you can see in every instance we go beyond that. Um most notably to the north. Um again that's 1100 ft set back from Stunkle Road. Uh the site also does include a dedicated water storage tank as required by the fire department. Um we will continue to be coordinating with all emergency services and reg regulatory bodies. Um and finally, just want to reiterate that this application presented today does meet all ordinance requirements and at times exceeds them. This is this project is a really good opportunity for the township, the county, and the land owner to generate revenue that can improve the quality of life for everybody. Um that that concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions. Have

we any questions? One question. The tax. The taxes that you're saying um that you presented on there, are those over the lifespan of the project or is that yearly? That's that's the first year. So that's that's year one projected revenue. Correct. Thank you. I guess I'll ask these now then. So I've been asked by this by multiple people who are very anti-data centers and anti-solar farms. They're wanting to know who is getting this electricity. Where does this electricity go?

No, it's a very fair question. Um, this electricity actually does stay directly in this area. It ties in directly to the distribution lines that power homes, businesses, you know, even this building can be powered by it. Um, so it goes, it could go to the neighbors. It goes really wherever it's needed directly surrounding the project area. Generally about 5 to 25 miles around the project is where it stays. And it looked like on your map for the interconnection, you're going about 2 to three miles to get to com. It's about two miles. Um, yeah, that's not that's not super unusual. We just have to pay to extend that line and that's cost effective for you.

That's right. So, it's all about trying to locate lines that have available capacity in KMED. Frankly, that's that's pretty rare. Um, so finding a line off of that uh Frankfurt substation um and extending it is is cost effective for this project. And uh you stated to uh the panels 8 to 12t tall. What's the maximum height of them at 90 degree tilt? 90 degree tilt. I would say around 15 ft with certainty under the 20 foot limit. He's going to answer that for but I'm assuming that at daybreak and sunset that's their highest point. Correct. What's

uh Ryan Mioni um director at US Solar um just wanted to make sure clarify to get you the uh kind of most appropriate and correct information here for your question. Um, so you mentioned 90° angle. They will never face 90°. It's about 50 to 53°. Uh, they'll face east in the morning and then west in the evening and then they will track back the other direction. Um, when the sun goes down, uh, when they lay flat for most of the afternoon, uh, they are approximately 8 ft off the ground. And it's that approximate 10 to 12 feet is their highest point when they are at that 50 to 53 degree angle something like that. So they never really go beyond that or at least the the systems that we install.

Okay. So once again I'm naive and stupid about this. The solar panel doesn't have to be full 90 degrees to the sun. I mean go back to my physics lessons. Angle of incidence equals angle of reflection. I guess you're not having any reflection. You can still produce electricity. Well, if you're hitting it 70 80°, well, in the morning when the sun does come up, if you face it directly 90°, if it is a vertical panel, then at that point, there's some point at the horizon where there's actually shade or shadows being cast. So, it's all kind of blocking. And at that point, you're just kind of facing it at the fence. The first row would take all the light and block the other rows.

Exactly. Exactly. So, it gets to maybe 30 minutes up in the morning and then now you're not shading over over each row. Um, the idea is we want to kind of space these out cuz the almost the further you space them out u the better kind of chance that you have for sun absorption. Um, but at some point there is that limit and that's based on the design plan here today is kind of the the most optimal design for that. And then how high would the screening be installed on the south side of the property?

So we typically install at uh at 5t. So that would be planted um that's not like the bulb plus the top of of a of a tree. So typically we plant at 5t and um yeah it's like like an evergreen type planting. So, it's going to take at least a couple years to block a flat panel of 8 foot. Yes. Yes. Exactly.

Okay. That's it for me. Would you uh care to take a seat so we can hear for some of our objectors now for concerned citizens? Okay. Gentlemen, would you care to speak?

Yes. Okay. Oh, sorry. Yes. Um,

that's okay. I'll get one. I'll get one if there's Well, good evening. Uh, my name is Steve Becker. I am an attorney and I represent uh multiple clients that live in the area, including um clients who are directly adjoining this proposed project. Um did have a chance to talk with the state's attorney's office and so I'm going to conduct some uh crossexamination which we are entitled to do under the law. Um, I'll be asking some questions regarding the project. I'll try to be brief. Uh, we have prepared a packet for you of exhibits. None of these should be surprising to, uh, the applicant because they're basically all taken from their documents, but we put them together so uh, they're easily accessible. So, um, I'm going to ask on a couple different topics. Uh, and I don't know, um, Mr. Marwell, whoever was best, but I'd first like to ask some questions for one of your representatives who has some knowledge on water resources, whoever that might be.

Yeah, I can answer those questions. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so first, um, turning to the packet of documents. Um, I'm now going to be showing you what's been marked as objectors exhibit number one. Um, have you seen these, uh, documents before? I have, yes. And just for clarity, uh my name is Ryan Mone. I'm uh the director of project development at US Solar and I also have a civil engineering and storm water management degree. Very good. Thank you.

Yeah. And um is it correct that these uh two pages uh that are contained in objectories exhibit number one are from exhibit B to US uh solar's application. I don't know specifically if it's to exhibit B but these are part in somewhere in our application. Okay. Very good. And do these appear to be true and correct copies of those documents? Yes. Right. And turning your attention now to the first map uh in objectors exhibit number one. Does this relate to water resources? Yes.

And looking at the white box area, does this represent the properties subject to the special use permit application? In this case, there are two white boxes and yes, the two white boxes incorporate the subject property. All right. And the red box contained therein, does that represent the location for the solar and battery facilities? That is correct. Um, and this is in the southern portion of the properties. Is that correct? Yes.

Turning your attention now to the northern portion of the properties. Could you please identify what the distinctive yellow lines indicate? This is so what what these maps contain is a first stage early due diligence of desktop work from NWI's national maps to identify if there's any potential incumbrances such as uh potential wetlands or anything like that that would come up. So these are only desktop. The yellow areas identify potential desktop delineated wetlands, but uh they need to be further examined in the field and field verified uh to confirm that those actually exist or not.

And how do you define a desktop wetland? It is done by looking at years and of aerials over time to uh identify the land. And also the National Wetland Inventory Map does a pretty good job on seeing low spots and just flagging them so that we ensure that we provide proper due diligence or our engineers do proper due diligence to make sure that those are at least secondary looked at. um so that we can either design around them or that they're they don't actually exist and we can design as if there were uh just typical farmland.

So this is not based on any actual site investigation. Is that correct? Not these particular exhibits? No. Okay. And according to the map, uh, the properties involved in your SUP application are contained right between headwaters of Fork Creek, Hickory Creek, and Prairie Creek. Is that accurate?

Based on this exhibit, yes. And with respect to uh the two water resources in the northern quadrant of these properties, did you have any evaluation of these resources uh conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers? Uh yes, we did um we didn't submit specifically to the core um but the core does have requirements for impact and we were under the requirements for impact to notify the core.

But but did the question though is did you have an evaluation done by the army corps of the resources?

No. And based on the location and proximity to the headwaters of Fort Creek as indicated on this map, these appear to be either main stems or andor adjacent wetlands of Fort Creek. Um, did you have any evaluations done to determine the nature of these particular water resources? So again, this is only desktop delineated work. Um to under just so that the room can understand when we go and do uh our field investigation work to either confirm what this shows or um remove some of the stuff on here is uh because this application was submitted and a lot of this due diligence was done in the winter. uh it's not appropriate to do uh field wetland investigations in Illinois in the winter because it does not show a lot of what you would see in in the spring, summer and fall months. So right now we are in the process of of doing that a lot of that fieldwork to identify and and confirm. What I would say is that our site plan that is part of our application already assumes that these are items that we would not want to design through and we would want to design around as a worst case scenario. So if any of these items, any of the the yellow area or any of the subject area in orange um is stuff that does not mean that we have to design around then the site plan can be further optimized and and reduced in size.

So based on what I understand from your testimony there because of the time frame in which this was done with the winner, you have not done any site evaluations of these particular resources at this time. Is that correct? Correct. It has been kicked off but the the materials have not been presented to us from our engineers at this point. All right. And are you aware uh that Fort Creek has been declared a waters of the United States for purposes of the federal clean water act before this meeting? I did not know that. No. And do you know what the waters of the United States are? Yes, I do. Could you please define that for us?

They're protected waters of the United States is pretty much what it means. And how would you describe those waters of the US? That certain agencies have to provide reviews if they're impacted or not and there's more difficult uh scrutiny when when they're being looked at if they are impacted in any way. Okay. And are you aware of the United States Supreme Court's uh landmark ruling in Sackett versus uh Environmental Protection Agency? I am not.

Turning your attention now to the second map in objectors exhibit number one. Um does this relate to desk type hydraology? Yes, it does. and directing your attention to the blue and white line that comes from offsite into the northern portion of the properties. What does this particular line indicate? Just to confirm, you're talking about in the northwest that's outlined in pink. The area it's outlined in pink. The direction of the flow is the blue dash line. Is that what you're referring to? Yes. And I was asking what does the blue uh and white line indicate?

The blue and white line indicates the direction of flow based on a desktop topography. Okay. And this would be a a water flowage then onto the site. Would that be accurate? That is correct. Okay. And now I'm going to uh show you what we've marked as objectors exhibit number two. And I just asked if you've seen these documents before. Are you referring to the site plan? Yes, these are um C200. Yes, correct. Okay. And is it correct that these uh two pages are contained in exhibit D2 to US uh solar application?

They are contained within the application. I don't know which exhibit off the top of my head. All right. And do these appear to be true and correct copies of those documents? Yes. And turning your attention now to the first map in objectors exhibit number two. Does this relate to the PV site plan? Yes, it does.

And directing your attention to the white text box about halfway down on the left side of the map. Is it correct that this state's quote proposed lowwater crossing you're talking the just cuz this is very difficult. I know it's very small. Um there's a white text box and I'm just wondering if you could on the west side correct before you enter the fence before it the road turns to the correct. Yes, you're saying yes that is correct.

All right. Um and this relates to the area in the northern portion of the properties. Is that right? This is to asssure that we are providing proper flow of the existing topography. Um because our site we don't plan to change the topography whatsoever. So the existing flow lines that were in the previous exhibit that we discussed would be the ex would be the proposed flow lines in a in the proposed condition. Okay. And is it correct this is just above the area just north of the area proposed for the solar panels and the batteries

where the c where the crossing is that you've identified in that note. Yes. Okay. Very good. Thank you so much. Um then next I'd like to have if you have someone who has um an expertise in infrastructure for the project uh particularly the building of an access road. I don't know who that would be. I'll take I'll take those as a civil engineer.

Okay. Very good. Um so uh next I would like to um turn your attention to the second map in objectors exhibit number two and asked does this relate to site hydraology? Yes, it does give the um the impression to a viewer so that they can understand where the the high points are and which areas flow to which direction with a site plan overlay. And at the top of the map, does it indicate uh where the proposed main site entrance will be located?

It does. And is this off the West Stunkle Road going south on the far west side of the northern portion of the properties? Yes. And directing your attention to the white text box again about halfway down on the left side of the map. Is it correct that this also states proposed low water crossing? Yes. Sorry, can't get the damn thing in. And this relates uh again this is in the uh northern portion of the property.

I would not say that that call out is in the northern portion of the property. I would say it's in the northern portion of the premises of the project. Okay. But centrally located within the in within the uh parcel itself. All right. Uh, now I'm going to uh ask you to look at what we marked as objectors exhibit number three. And have you seen this document before? Yes.

And is it correct that this page is contained in exhibit K uh to US Solar's uh application? Again, I don't know if that is the correct exhibit number. Uh, but yes, this is included within our application. And does this appear to be a true and correct copy of that document? Yes. And turning your attention uh to the map in objector's exhibit number three. Does this relate to preliminary construction traffic routing map?

Yes. And does this indicate uh that traffic would come basically from I-57 south west on West Stunk Road to the access road and then going south into the project premises.

It does indicate that. Correct. One thing that I would note is that this has not been approved or anything by a road commissioner or anything like that. It is our company proposing what we feel is the least impactful route based on construction, but ultimately it is is for the the county or or whoever has road jurisdiction and when they're granting that permit to ensure that we are taking the proper route to the site itself. Right. Uh now I'm going to direct your attention to what we've marked as objectors exhibit number four. And have you seen this document before?

Yes. And is it correct that this is uh US Solar's application? Yes. And does this appear to be a true and correct copy of that application? Yes. And turning your attention now to a little below the middle of page three of that document. Is it correct that uh grading or fill is proposed in this project? Where could you please point me again to where I'm supposed to?

Sure. in the um the are little uh below the middle of page three. And my question was uh whether this project proposes uh grading or fill.

So as a cover here because we ultimately know that some grading will have to occur for the access road specifically. We want to make sure that it's noted here. So yes, it is it is noted there that there may be minor grading. All right. And it states specifically that minor grading only where necessary to ensure safe access to the site uh for maintenance. Is that correct? That is correct. All right. And what kind of access road do you propose uh to build?

Um it is a gravel access road. Um, so typically how we would design these access roads is that we uh we go down well we strip the top soil first and keep that top soil on property and then we go down approximately 10 in. Um, and then a filter fabric is laid down before the gravel is laid down and lifts. Um filter fabric ensures that over time that gravel doesn't spread out um as rain washes through the property or or if high water comes through the property at all that it stays all in one location. It is also then a lot easier for uh for in 20 years when we come in to decommission the property that we can ensure that that we clean up as best as we can insure it uh and turn it back to existing farm and condition or better. And how do you plan to stabilize the road then? Um given the conditions on the property,

the road will be stabilized in those lifts, but ultimately it will be designed by a uh by an engineer to ensure that the vehicles that are rolling over that road aren't uh destroying that road uh during the construction period or during any operation period. And uh what is the weight of the solar battery storage container that would have to be transported on the access road?

I don't know yet because we haven't purchased them. Um all units are slightly different. Um I can give a slight example of units that we are buying today. I don't know the exact weight off the top of my head. Um but right now we are buying LG batteries. uh they have a manufacturing facility actually in the United States which is a nice thing to say because I probably couldn't say that months or even years ago. Um so it is nice that we are doing our share to buy domestic if possible. Um but I I don't know off the top of my head what what the weight of those systems are.

Okay. And exhibit J to your application failed to identify the composition of your pilings or posts. So I was wondering what is the composition of the pilings that are going to be used to support your solar arrays?

Uh it is a structural steel. Ultimately how we design that is a geotech uh is performed and that was actually performed a couple weeks ago. That geotechnical analysis allows us to understand understand the the strata uh how much top soil, how much clay, how much sand ultimately we are not using concrete here. So we lie rely on friction on friction force to um so that upheave doesn't happen especially during upheave from frost conditions. So at the least we know in Illinois that we have to get below frost conditions with our pile. Um a structural steel is uh is what the entire industry uses. What I would say in most cases if not in all cases our company does do a a zinc coating on that uh especially in hydra conditions to asssure that uh if there is any corrosion at all it is limited as much as possible.

Right. And where are those uh pilings manufactured? Um again, we haven't bought the material. Uh we want to ensure ourself that we can get through um the zoning stage before we start uh buying that type of material.

And how deep are you going to drive the piles into the soil? that is ultimately based on what our geotech results and our structural engineer says is appropriate and that ultimately has to be approved by the county reviewer when we are getting our building permit. Uh typically in Illinois I would say you're somewhere in the range of 7 to 10 ft is a good number. um based on wind loads are important knowing that we get uh tornadoes and heavy wind coming through here. We want to ensure that these don't become sales. Uh so we do go through a very rigorous process when when we are doing this and and we also expect that your county does does the same thing to ensure the the safety of of its people.

Right. And I'm lastly going to show you what we marked as objectors exhibit number five. Just going to ask if you've seen um this document before and this is just impertinent part. I have but I will say I have not read the entire document front to back. Okay. And is it correct that uh these are select pages from the Will South Cook Soil and Water Conservation District's NRI report number 5866. Give me one second here.

Yes, I would agree with that. All right. And did these appear to be true and correct copies of the pages from that report? to the best of my knowledge.

All right. And turning your attention now to the land use opinion section of the executive summary. And this is the first page after the cover page in objectors exhibit number five. Is it correct that in the center of the box containing the Is it correct that in the center of the box containing the opinion, the conservation states conservationist states under the section quote most significant concerns that it lists quote an area of concentrated flow near the north end of the parcels was visible. This area should be addressed in the conservation plan. Did I read that accurately?

Yes. Right. Um and then given the that the northern portion of these parcels contains at least two main stems of Fort Creek andor adjacent westlands of Fort Creek, which is waters of the United States under the Clean Water Act. How do you propose to build a road from West Stunkle Road through these federally protected water resources to reach the project area on the southern portion of the parcels without violating federal law? Can you please repeat that to make sure that I give the proper answer?

Certainly. Yeah. My question was given that um these appear to be either two main stems of Fort Creek and or adjacent wetlands of Fort Creek which are waters of the United States. I'm asking how do you propose to build a road from West Stunkle Road through these federally protected water resources to reach the project area without violating federal law? Well, first the we put together a plan based on the review of our engineers who are professional engineers who have their professional engineering degree um and stamps in the state of Illinois. So they're they are the ones we stand behind them as well that they've done their proper due diligence to ensure that what we are proposing to you is in uh the matter of the law of the state of Illinois as well as the United States of America. Um let me finish that too. So

please do

um with that as well is there are many roads thousands upon thousands of road in this in this country that cross federally state or or federal um waters as well. So this is something that we truly care about. I think water control and uh storm water management is some of the most overlooked but important um things that we need to care about for um for new development in general. What I would say is what we are proposing is not causing enough impact based on the minimum requirements from uh from FEMA as well as the Army Corps of Engineers as to my knowledge at this point today.

Right. And are you aware of the fact that it is illegal to grade or fill either waters of the US or wetlands? There are ways around it, but at some point, yes, there is a limit requirement. All right. And did you receive Army Corps approval and required permitting to build a roadway through the protected waterways and or wetlands of Fort Creek prior to filing your application? So, under the national um and I can't remember the exact permit from the Army Corps off the top of my head. Um

I think it's a 404B permit. Yes, there is a requirement that if you are disturbing less than um onetenth of an acre of land, then the application uh to the Army Corps is not a requirement under the the national um the national standard. We are under any onetenth of an acre across the entire site of impact. Um the access road, I would agree, counts as impact. Um but we are still under that tenth of an acre considering across the entire property itself.

And then also without first obtaining approval from Army Corps, how can you gain ingress and egress even at all to this particular project site under the under the army national uh standard? We don't have to submit to the national permits cover us until we meet that one that tenth of an acre threshold. And then how can a determination on whether you have a right to access to this project from Stunker Road be made without you first obtaining a jurisdictional review from the Army Corp? So again, the the Army Corps we we fit within we fit under their national permit of of an acre of a tenth of an acre threshold impact limit. What we do as an additional standard is we do submit our wetland reports to the Army Corps to provide them to have them review and provide us with a no permit required letter. Um, I don't know off the top of my head if we have done that yet or not. The Army Corps has a lot of other more important things to worry about than knowing that we've met the standard and for them to provide us a letter. I've seen those take two weeks. I've seen those take three years. Um but for your question specifically regarding access um the Army Corps because we are underneath that tenth of an acre standard they would only be worried about the crossing specifically not the access. That's ultimately up to the AHJ who who maintains that roadway and is

ultimately the one who would grant us the ability to be able to access at that point or not. So, you don't know at this point how you're going to get across those federally protected waters. Is that correct? What we've designed today meets the standards that our engineers have put forth based on Illinois and national law. Yes.

All right. And without having an approved access road, how can your application before this committee be considered complete? This is for zoning specifically to ensure that the site itself can um can support solar. The building permit is where we go through the process of telling us how we enter and access and and what we can and can't build. Um, so this is to just ensure that we have met the requirements of the zoning uh department and the zoning ordinance within the county.

But you are requesting a special use application here for the entire 90 acre parcel. Is that correct? That is correct.

Right. I I have no further questions. Thank you very much uh for your answers. And then I just wanted to state uh basically for the record on behalf of my clients um I ask that you would please accept these uh exhibits uh into evidence for purposes of our objection. And then lastly, I wanted to make an objection on the record on behalf of my clients that they are alleging that the uh state solar law at issue here in this particular application is unconstitutional under both state and federal constitutions under the due process clauses, the equal protection clauses, and the separation of powers doctrine. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman. Can I ask land use staff uh some questions that were pertinent to that testimony for clarification? Uh yeah, be a limited time to make sure

I I think I'll be more brief than uh the previous app uh speaker who said they would be brief. So we we've heard this before that they haven't complied with all the reviews by whatever agency it would be. In this case, it would be the Army Corps of Engineers as it applies to the waters of the US on multiple applications in the past. And I thought I had a grasp of it, but I I want to make sure I do. Is there some point in this process where they do more than what they have done now? Can you explain that to me? Uh, who wants it? So, I I think you're asking Oh, can you repeat the last part? Sorry, it's just a

Okay. Well, we'll go we'll go to the waters of the US and the core of engineers. Yeah.

So, the the question there was that they shouldn't be able to have an access road because as he put it, it's a water of the United States, which I don't think any of us here have the legal authority to claim whether it's a water of the United States. I looked it up briefly. It's so contested in the Supreme Court. There's multiple definitions, but the definition that I've always kind of stuck to was it has to be a water, not a wetland, not a puddle, not a ditch, but it's wavered back and forth the last 10 years. Very contentious. So, at some point here, is the applicant required to file more paperwork with the core engineers and p pursue more restrictions and delineation of wetlands, waters of the United States, and such. or is what they've done all they have to do on this case?

So for the zoning aspect of it for the special use permits that there there is transfer your question there is further if there is further review that that is required but that's done as the applicant said in the building permit part of the project. So they don't have to do that now for the zoning partner for the special use permit they don't and they wouldn't want to do that if it's hundreds of thousands of dollars if they pull the plug or this never gets approved. Correct. Uh, I mean that's each to each developer to decide. Would that be the case? We would not prefer to spend that money to the Yes. But you realize that you eventually will have to to get a permit. If it's something that's required, then yes, we're obviously going to do it.

And you're saying that's required. Um at the building per process there may be further engineering requirements such as Army Corp approval um other stuff that may be required at the and that requires that they provide you letters from the Army Corps of Engineers that they have signed off. If it's required at the building per process, yes, that would be required, but they don't need to have it now then for zoning. They don't forget they don't. Okay. That's that's that's the way I thought I understood it. But with all his questioning, it made me believe that they were trying to pull one over on us. If I may add, the Army Corps of Engineers is mostly and especially interested in navigable water. That is that's where the definition gets really Yeah, that's the battle.

I I just happen to have worked for the Army Corps of Engineers for 10 years. So I I know what we have done at the in those 10 years, which I admit was a long time in the past. Okay. Hope I was brief enough that that's what I just wanted to make sure that there there is more to the process than what they've done so far. Yeah. And the zoning cases frequently have to be approved before they can get permission for construction. So

those are the water resource ordinance part of it. That's how that happens. Well, I think I know things and I like to think I'm smart, but I'm proving constantly that I'm not. And several times tonight have been proven that I not thinking it all through. And get me here about 11:30. You'll see how bright I really am. So, I'm done. That That was my question. I just want to clarify what was said there. Have we any other questions? No. Do we have any other Oh, there's lots more speakers. Yeah, I'm talking about our board. Any other questions? No. Okay, then we will continue to listen to the objectors.

Ah, you're sneaking in there, huh? I'm sneaking in. That's what I sat over there. Yeah.

So, I'm Jeff Becker from the watershed committee. I'm the the chairman. So the problem with this is the will county solar law says preliminary site plan must identify physical features including the wetlands. That was not done here. They have on exhibit one there if you take a look at it they have the orange areas which are suspect. Those were the one is a very large water area and we asked about this to US solar and we said what are the water resource issues on this parcel and what did they say to us? They said there was only one which was the the large orange area which is a it's an inundated flooding area likely a wetland. There's the two other orange areas. There's the yellow areas and then there's the two large yellow areas of the wetlands. The problem is the ordinance itself says they have to identify the wetlands. They haven't done that and they couldn't do it because they did it in the winter farm. This is a farmed area. Wetlands have to be reviewed in the spring to the fall. They cannot be done in the winter. So they could not have identified the wetlands because they can't do it. They were in the wrong time of year. So, so let me just Are you saying then we shouldn't hear any solar cases from November to April because they can't identify

they need to have done it before they come to you because it says in the ordinances your solar statute says it has to you have to identify the wetlands and they did not do this. Why do we think 45 acres of this property is not is not being put in solar panels? Because there are two either waters of the US there. This is right around for three creeks. The headarters of the creeks are going in. So this is a headwater which would be a navigable water. That's why the will South Cook said there was a visible flow of water on this property and it's going through where they're going to put a road. you. And now they're saying, "Well, maybe it's a tenth

of the area is is what it is." We don't know that, but we don't know how much water is on this area. We know from the neighbors that they said they get flooding all throughout this area. You're right by three creeks. So, this is going to be a massive problem. But you passed a solar statute and the solar statute said you have to have the wetlands. You absolutely have to have the wetlands. You can't do it in the building permit. you need to do it now because this pro likely that road is going to be illegal and the army we've had other cases from the watershed and the army corps came in and they stopped projects because the not just navigable waters they said a wetland was going through and it couldn't be crossed because it was connected directly to a stream system. So this is a massive massive problem. I want to just talk about a couple other things. There's now if we stay on the next page here the on-site flow path where it had that blue and white. This is exhibit one that shows there's water coming through the property. It goes through that water goes all the way to the creek because we've looked at a lot of these properties uh for the for the wershed committee next. Why do you think that again? Why is that 45 acres? Why don't they have anything? Because you know what? They didn't have to do those wetland delineations because they're only doing the bottom 45. That I believe was deliberate because I believe they know that there's a wetland going through this property and they cannot actually build on it. So let's go to exhibit um uh this is going to be exhibit five. Um the most significant concern from the will South Cook was an area of concentrated flow near the north end of the parcels are visible. And then I just want to bring you back over to page 10 here. Very limited. These are the soil types. They say they're very limited. This uh this soil has one or more properties that are unfavorable for the rated site. And you go to the next

page, page 11, you see that all of the soil types are listed as very limited, very limited for the soil arrays and the soil anchors. The steel corrosion is high. Red light, green light. And I'll just keep this very, very brief. Red light, green light. Red is bad. Green is good. Now, take a look at the maps at the end of this page 14 and 15. They're all straight red because Will South Cook has said there's going to be a problem with the arrays, these steel galvanized arrays. You're right between the stream systems and you're going to get leeching from the zinc into the into this whole area which is going to go by the stream system. This is a property that never should have been been used. And I believe they knew it after they did their initial things. And they did it anyway. They believe that basically JB Pritsker basically is going to grant this no matter what. And it doesn't matter what the suitable conditions. This application is incomplete. They didn't give you the wetlands. And what they also did, it's on bad, it's on soil that it shouldn't be. The arrays are going in. Finally, I looked all over because I did a foyer to get all these documents. I looked through all the documents. I could not find the number of arrays. That's another thing that you have to have listed in your application. So, we don't even know exactly how many. We know the panels. They had over 17,000. We don't know the number of arrays. This application is incomplete because of the water resources. Thank you.

I don't want to hear claps and I don't want to hear booze. So, please sit and listen like the rest of us give your name for the record, please. Hi, I'm Melissa Taviger. I live on Stalco Road. Just a little of this situation. Um, I have a I have something prepared, but there's a lot of inconsistencies here. So, I'm going to try to get through this. I have 30 years experience in quesan engineering. We know what quesons are. So I've interpreted soil I've interpreted soil borings for 30 years of my career.

Okay.

There's no soil borings here. I actually asked Harry Marwell at the Green Gardens Township meeting and he didn't have them um the week after I saw the drill rig out there and spoke to them. So my concerns are we don't know where the water table is. We don't know where it is because they haven't provided soil borings. Why is that a problem? Um, if you look on page 32 of their application, which is consistent with when I saw the engineers out there drilling, um, the water table by verbal and by my own eyesight is about 8 to 10 foot down, but we don't have those soil borings here. However, they do have an engineering report stating that the soil is silty loom. If anybody knows what silty loom is here, it's in wetlands. There's only two type of soils. That soil is in wetlands. It also shows by their own application that it's a high rating for corrosion of steel. Probably why you've decided to design it with the zinc. What's that going to do when it's a high corrosion of steel? The zinc and cadmium poisoning into the leeching into the field is far worse than just the corrosion of raw steel. You have homes very close to this location. You have a massive amount of water. You have hydric soils stated by their own engineering reports. Um, as somebody 30 years in this industry, this doesn't support the poles, the galvanized steel poles they're putting in. At best, they'd have to put them in concrete each one. That's why when we build in wet lands, we encase steel cages of rebar that are coated in, you know, feet of steel concrete, steel into the concrete. They're not doing that here. They're putting highly corrosive materials directly into the land. And they're not providing this board with the soil borings that they did take because this isn't the interpretations of the soil borings. You did say they didn't, but

they did by your own admission. Um, also when you do soil borings, this is a large area. You have to take several. You can't just take one because soil conditions can change 15 20t away because of the natural waterways that are there and the natural water resources. Um, this is this is incomplete. They're they're proposing to put this into a hydric soil conditions by their own admission. Um, silty loom. I I can't stress enough. All that is is sandy hydric soil. Period. Um, I I come here as a resident concerned, but I'm looking at the documents as somebody with 30 years of case on engineering experience, and I'm calling a hard BS on all of this. This specific plot of land cannot and does not support any rods going into the ground. You're going to have zinc and cadmium poisoning leeching into the fields. The water table is probably 10 to 12 foot underground. That's a disaster. Um, you've got residents everywhere behind you. Their well waters are going to be contaminated. Me specifically, the water ends up. I am the low spot. It ends up in my pasture, a horse pasture. I have a thoroughbred. I have a dr horses. This is where the water from this watershed winds up in my horse pasture. Do you know how much money that's going to be for you guys to replace when my horses start dying from the zinc and cadmium poisoning? Not to this. This is ridiculous. It really is. So all I have to say to you, whoever on the board looked at this to say that they they had no objections, they need to learn about soil conditions and they need to understand corrosion of steel underground because that reason alone makes this a deadly installation. That's not even talking about the issues of so many inconsistencies that Mr. Marwell has brought to us. He stated in his testimony, they I think somebody

here asked why they picked it and he stated because it's dry area. Well, page 32 says different. Um he said that he visited us. He didn't. He went to Shorewood first. That was 15 miles away from the Green Garden residence. And then when he did, he purposely turned his back on myself and another I'm that woman you turned your back on prior to the meeting and another engineer that asked simple what type of rods are going in the ground. He could not answer. There's so many things left undone here. You can't approve this tonight. It's a recipe for death. It really is. I'm not even being extreme. Um, another couple things. We all live on there on Stuckle Road. There's plenty of residents here. Find one person that received a mailing or got a knock on a door. None of us did. Another dishonest statement. So, with that, I just want to quickly read, unless somebody has a question regarding my experience, I'd be happy to answer the best that I can. Um, if not,

I do. Okay, please go ahead. Let's try to figure this out. Okay, so everybody that's opposed to this wants me to vote no. You want me to vote no, correct? I want you to vote no right now specifically because hydroil and you're going to be killing people. You have to give me people sick. Let me let me tell you what you need. I'm trying to help everybody yet to speak. You have to give me the reason that applies to the zoning that votes no. You can't give me the reason that you think the girders will rust or that you think it's hydric because that's all

this board. You cannot ask me who's not a civil engineer or structural engineer to design the project. That's out of my realm of expertise. That's out of my scope. The legal representation would tell me here that's Can I answer your question?

Let me finish here. That's not something that I have to consider. I have to consider the zoning. Is it the appropriate zoning for the property? Because I could debate you for hours about the water and hydrarology there. Because unbeknownst to probably everybody in this room, the 80 acre farm directly to the south where the homes are where they put a road across the broken tile. I farmed for 15 years in the 1990s. And I couldn't wait to get off that farm because I got tired of fixing all the broken tile. All those homes were built on hydric soils. So to say a solar facility can't be on hydric soils. Well, did we apply it to the homes? Did you say the soil silky clay loom is not going to support?

I have to answer your questions you're bringing up, please, sir. But let's address. I'm I'm trying to we could debate all these things you said. I'm not debating. I'm trying to answer your question. But what I'm saying is we could, but why waste our breath and everybody's time here? I'm going to get tired by 11 o'clock. You got to give me a reason to say no to this that applies to the zoning. You just does it does it affect the quality of life bad? Is it inconsistent? Unfortunately, I'm going to hear that the Green Garden Township supervisor says it's not in their comprehensive plan, but I've attended training programs on this and I cannot fully. You got to give me a reason.

It's Hydrick soil. I gave you a reason. But that's not in my room. It has to be, sir. You're sitting on this board to approve this. It's an agriculture. I'm trying to answer your question, sir. You have to give me time to talk. And then I'll ask staff if they can cler. Well, I'd like to know what staff's expertise is in in interpreting what happens with leeching. Excuse me. But that's not Oh, excuse me. Stabbing both of you. I'm trying to answer his question. Oh, wait. You keep interrupting saying I'm trying to answer your question. let him finish and then we will not interrupt you.

But technically I don't want you to answer my question. I want you to understand that my question isn't that we got to debate that. It's not even in my realm of things I have to debate. Is that correct? Anybody from staff or legal? It's I've heard the chairman say numerous times what we're here to do is decide whether the project is appropriately zoned. not whether it's appropriately built. That's a different question and that's where the experts come in that maybe our staff doesn't have. Yes, that's just the way it is.

Okay. So, you can rebet all you want, but it you and I'm asking you though, find me a reason that I can find that applies to the state law. And I do actually try to defer back to the old county law that I can say no as it applies to zoning. Okay, you've made your statement. Let her finish her statement, please. As it applies to I just want to respond to his statement that he farmed next door and there's homes in in the wet areas. Those homes were not built with steel rods put into the ground. Those homes were built with probably designed quesons by an engineer, structural engineer. And again, a quesan is a wire cage encased in concrete.

Basement.

Yeah, with the basements. We go down far enough, sir. That's why they're built with hes. I answered your question. So, so there in case there's there's not leeching of of cadmium and zinc into the water supply. So, let's go to the zoning issue that you requested. Um, one of the conversations we had earlier with this gentleman here and uh whether they need to get the Army Corps of Engineers or anyone else involved, you stated it has to be one/10enth. Was that your statement, sir? I just I'm clarifying because this pertains to zoning and what they need to bring to the table to have a complete application. Um, prior to that it had you said the road disturbance would have to be less than one/10enth of an acre. So if anybody does the math here 1,200 ft* 12t wide road you said 12t wide road and I'm and I'm just doing surface. I'm not even doing the depth of the 10 in. So you 1 acre is 43,560 ft. If you're just doing a I don't know, let's say a two-dimensional, but you're going down 10 inches, that's 1,200 feet to get back to your installation and 12 foot wide, that's that is a disturbance of 14,400 square ft. So by your own math, it should be more than that, but that's 33% of an acre. So prior to coming here and having a complete application, he should have had that by his own statement. So, I'm just going back to there are a lot of variables that haven't been answered by US Solar and and these individuals. So, pertaining to making a decision on zoning, you don't have all the information for your expertisees to even recommend. You just don't. Um, that's not even me trying to be argumentative. There's just so many inconsistencies with what they're proposing and what their statements are. Um, so I guess I would say give you a reason. When you are being when when people are coming to you and giving you reasons to approve a zoning and there's several inconsistencies, I would say maybe ask for clarification

on the information you're being provided before you make a decision. Maybe put it out to another month or a few weeks where they can get their stories and their information accurate. Um, that would be one of the things. Um, no mailers were done. Uh, you know, it's agriculture. You're asking this community to allow an installation that in the very foreseeable future and this is information you have is going to damage and cause health issues. But if you're looking for not that argument, you're here to change zoning of an agriculture land and plot. They're not giving you the information to make that decision. So, if I I'd like to read my statement now, unless you have a question or or I mean that was just I I came here prepared with just a quick, you know, just a quick uh statement, but you know, when I saw all this information regarding what they're putting into the ground, obviously the individuals within your department that approved this or suggested approval simply didn't do the due diligence to see the dangers involved here. You're talking a lot of environmental issues. So when you're changing agriculture to a different zone, that is your job. Your job is to protect the current residents and your constituents by not allowing a zoning change because this is a wetland. Silty loom is only in wetlands. That's not conducive to building on. You stated you built next door all these homes. They were encased steel and concrete. That's what a quesan is. That's what residential homes are. I've done it for 30 years. I've done it in the field and I've done it with engineers and structural engineers. So, I'm going to continue if you'd allow me just to read my statement. Members of the Will County Board, thank you for being here today. I want to be very clear. This is no longer just a policy discussion. This is a legal and fiduciary decision. Under Illinois law, you are granted zoning authority to protect public health, safety, and welfare. That authority is not optional. It is your duty. And when the facts on

the ground show clear risks and negative damaging environmental impact, approving a project anyway anyway creates exposure for this county. On Stunkle Road Corridor, you are considering a large-scale solar and battery installation in a rural unincorporated area with known drainage limitations. There's ditches, culverts, and tile systems that are already under severe strain. No dedicated fire protection infrastructure designed for battery storage incidences currently and documented resident concerns that have not been meaningfully resolved. Earlier they said there were a few. There were 96% I received those signatures myself. 96% of the local adjacent residents spoke on record with their concerns opposing this installation in this specific water logged area. That matters. We matter. That's why we're here to stop it at the zoning level. You have that power. When flooding worsens, when emergency response is inadequate, or when property impacts occur, the question will not be what happened. It will be what did the board know and when did they know it? And today, you know, you've been told about the environmental impact and watershed implications. You've been told about drainage concerns. You've been told about fire response gaps by the local fire departments, which we do not have a dedicated one of. You've heard from residents whose families, livestock, properties, and safety are directly affected by the zinc and cadmium and the the specific installation they're proposing. That sers and ladies creates a record. Now, let's talk about the process you're here to do today. Limiting or compressing public comment on an issue of this scale raises serious concerns about whether this process meets the standard of fair and open participation expected in the land use decisions. Courts don't look kindly on processes that appear predetermined or

dismissive while impacting residents. And finally, consistency. If Will County has required stricter standards, setbacks or infrastructures, asurances for other projects, but lowers that bar here, here, you open the door to claims of arbitrary and inconsistent application of zoning authority. This is avoidable. Other jurisdictions have paused, which is what I'm asking for here, modified or denied similar projects when they did not meet local safety and infrastructure standards. That is not obstruction. That is proper exercising of your zoning power. So today you have a clear choice. You can approve this and accept the legal, financial and public safety exposure that comes with it or you can uphold your duty, protect the integrity of this process that we all do respect and vote no on a project that simply does not meet the standards of this zoning board's changes to allow it. I urge you to choose the latter. When risks are known, approval isn't leadership, it's liability. Protect your residents, protect the county, and make a decision that will stand up not just politically, but legally. It's not safe, not supported, and not sound. There's only one responsible vote for all of you today, and that is no. You have been informed. You have been warned. And if you approve this, you will own your own consequences. May I make a statement to you?

Sure. One of the things you don't seem to understand. Is we're an advisory board. Correct. What what we do is we pass this on to the land use committee and they pass it on to the county board and the county board is the voters on most of the case. I understand that sir. I I I take offense to you saying I don't understand. When when you talk about we elected officials and corrupt etc. It bothers me. I didn't call you corrupt sir. No. What? No I did not. What you did was insinuate that this board was being

this board right now as it stands by the recommendation of this individual which I really don't understand what their credentials are. You're listening to individuals that have a lot of inconsistency. What I'm asking I'm not accusing you of being corrupt sir. What I'm asking you is to all look and see that this is an inconsistent and an incomplete application. For that reason alone, you do have the power to say no and come back when it's complete. By his own statements, the gentleman representing the petitioner, he said they don't have to do anything if it's onetenth. It's clearly over 33% minimal. That's not even going the deck. It's a zoning board. They're asking to change the landscape of the land. You are the first line of defense. They're giving you reasons to say you're not ready to come to this zoning board. You can say no. You can't.

I understand that. BUT YOU HAVE you can understand. I think I do understand it, sir. But thank you for trying to clarify that to me. Thank you. I appreciate everybody here today. I hope you all really do listen to the inconsistencies and do the right thing, please. I would like the record to state that I don't believe I said anything about building homes there. I said I used to farm it for 15 years and they built homes there now.

Knowing the engineering instructor I'm just stating for the record that I don't believe and if I please please let ME STATE FOR THE RECORD that I don't believe my words were that I built the homes there. I stated that I farmed there for 15 years and now they have built homes there. Who they were I don't know. Please, please. I'm just setting the record straight so that my words weren't misunderstood among anybody else here that I did not build the homes on that lane. You say, did you say did you have to get rid of Yeah, I'm not going to clear the record.

I'm going nowhere fast. I have Yes, please come down.

Good evening everybody. Um, my name is Dean Christophos for the record and I am the Green Garden Township Supervisor and I really do appreciate the opportunity to say a few words. Um, John, I appreciate that you quoted me and I appreciate more than that that you uh heard what I said. uh whether or not you believe that's a zoning uh decision or not, I I totally respect what you're saying. But I do want to say, and I've shared some of this already in another context, is that I do stand here on behalf of our official township board, the board of trustees, as well as many, many residents in our township. And I want to begin by saying this. We are asking this planning commission to vote to deny moving forward with US solar special use permit for a commercial solar energy and battery storage facility ZC-226-017. As the Green Garden Township Supervisor, I did send a formal letter of objection opposing this zoning application. Now, there are, I believe, all kinds of legal reasons that give you the opportunity to vote this down. I am not addressing those. those are being addressed by uh council uh Steve Becker and the team there and he will continue to do that. But I do want to share the reason uh that that John mentioned uh again and that that I had mentioned previously. The the official

reason that our township opposed this commercial solar and battery storage is really simple. It's simply because it's not in compliance with our comprehensive land use map for solar facilities. And I am speaking about our township. Um I understand you have a role and we have a role and as supervisor I just want to make it very clear that there is a place in our township for solar but it's in the commercial zoning designation of our township. It's not supposed to be next to an established residential subdivision. It's not supposed to be next to a proposed residential beautiful subdivision. These are beautiful homes and that is exactly what US Solar is proposing to do. They want to put it right next to a beautiful subdivision and one that's proposed. I don't know if that went before your committee or not yet, the proposed one, but it will if it hasn't. And I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but when I looked at the presentation, Harry, that you that you put on and I saw the the land, what it fails to show is that there's approximately a hundred homes subdivision, not just homes scattered across our township. This is right next to a subdivision. It touches the land. You know, I've heard people say it's adjacent to the land. Well, adjacent sounds like it could be, you know, pretty far away. This touches the land. It literally touches it. And think about it. We're talking about 90 acres, I guess 45 acres of solar, 17,000

solar panels next to a beautiful residential subdivision. That's super concerning for me as supervisor of this township as well as many, many other residents. And that's why we're here. We are concerned that if this solar facility is approved, it will absolutely negatively affect and damage hundreds of our residents. It's going to damage our residential growth plan that we have. It's going to change the the complexity of of our township. And I thought about Earthrise and the massive scale that that is. And we're still we're still pushing against that. And I've talked to Harry about this and Harry has assured us this is much smaller. But I'll tell you what what a big difference is. Again, not to be redundant, Harry, but this is right next to a subdivision. It just doesn't belong there. It It just doesn't belong. It's not the right place for it. And we all want to follow the Illinois statutes. We all want to follow the law. I know our township does, uh, our township board does. I I know Will County does. We all want to be cooperative of the Illinois law. But you know, when these statutes begin to violate the rights of residents in our township, when the law begins to violate the rights of the county, then we need to we need to stand up for what's right at that point. We need to have the fortitude. We need to have the fortitude, the courage to vote it down, to deny it, and and you know what, be

prepared to deal with the consequences of that vote. I've heard, oh, we're going to get lawsuits. We're going to get sued. You know what? We have to stand up for what is right. I hope John that this is a good reason that it is going to negatively affect hundreds of our residents, hundreds of them. And uh and that that's that's a big deal to us. And so yes, we are asking that the land use committee, the land use development respects our land use development and ask Harry and US Solar to find a different location. I know that's a big deal at this stage of the game. We're not against solar. We just want it where it belongs. I have a map right here and we don't want to even think about spending any more time on this, but I have a map right here where solar belongs and it's in our commercial district. So, I'm going to ask on behalf of the board of trustees and many residents, I'm going to ask this committee, with all due respect, to please vote to deny this application, set it aside, and let us solar pick an area where this solar belongs. Thank you very much.

May I add something? Yes, sir. In our letter, our package here, we have a letter for residents of your township. Yes, sir. with 131 signatures supposing this with what? I'm sorry. 131 signatures of this. It's probably the people that live right there. So I counted 142 past high school. Uh if I could ask you. Yes, sir. If I remember by recollection, the commercial corridor for Green Garden Township follows around 45.

Yes. Does it go east and west of Route 45? It does. It goes It goes west to Shear. All the way to Shear. All the way to Shear. And it goes the whole mile. Yes. And it And it doesn't go too far to the east. Probably just the first half mile to probably. Yeah. Right. Right about there. And then it goes south and it also goes north. There's a reasonable reasonable area for solar. There really truly is.

One could probably make the extrapolation that that's probably one of the reasons it's favored there is because it's the least densely populated area of Green Garden. Yes, I would say that's 100% true. But it's also on Route 45, right? You know, it's not it's not touching. It's not right now 45 makes a lot of great sense for some of the industrial developments that we've seen come because if you're going to have trucks, it makes sense to be on a state designated truck route.

Yes. Yes. Well, that's true. That's true. But our our big thing is is the residential. It's just I get it with the Illinois statutes. I get that you have to follow the law, but there's got to come a point where we stand together as a township and as a county and say, you know what, we need to stand up for what's right and and start denying these if they're if they're touching residential homes because people's lives get affected. It's it's a it's a big deal. So, I I appreciate you listening and and I really hope that you vote it down or or you know, there's been a lot of detail and and I I don't know if if it's just cuz I'm a simple-minded type of person. Um, I listen to everything this this evening and man, I I got educated like you, John, have said a few times, but to me as a supervisor, it boils down to the residents. If you if you bring it Harry somewhere else, we'll be all for it.

Well, that and see that is my quandry. So, we'll say that 85% of the Greek people in Green Garden don't live anywhere near what you've identified as the industrial, but I actually happen to know some people live in Manhattan Township, right across the road from Sheer Road, and they probably don't want to look at a solar farm. But meanwhile, the Green Garden residents are saying, "Well, you're the ones that get to look to a solar farm if we have our say." So, and it comes down to one of the core problems I have as a commissioner is I'm supposed to look at the legalities and not the popularity contest that say these 300 people say it's okay and these 10 people don't and then on the next case it's just the reverse. But I I understand your your statements. And uh and and I I'll state this. Um, I'm going to have to ask the applicants more about the battery system because I can't believe nobody's really bringing up the battery system. Usually, that's a huge red flag. And I would have I personally would like to know more about the battery system. It's basically been completely glossed over by these other rabbit holes that we've gone down, which I don't think have too much of a leg to stand on here in this room, but maybe somewhere else in the courtroom they do. But maybe the battery system is something we need to be looking at better and I'll do that after we get all the speakers done. Okay.

Thank you for your question. Thank you. Half hours is a long time been

I'm going to keep it short and might not be sweet. I'm Ed Snow. I live in Green Garden. I live right across the street from where this thing wants to go in. Okay. Right across the street. Got a certified letter for it. So, I'm well aware of it. What has happened in the last two years to change this to have this happen? I was here two years ago, not quite but close enough for another 45 acre 5 megawatt electrical farm. that didn't go through. Now we're here again. They moved it over a track. Same thing. It's in the middle of a residential area. If you go all the way around, it's all residential and they're backed up to some people that have some beautiful homes that they're going to put this. You guys can talk about the battery operation setup later. Someone else can do that. But right now, I want to know what happened. What changed that we're here again?

State law. State law. Yes. State law has nothing to do with the people that live there. Wait, wait a second. I pay I pay taxes just like everybody else. I served this country just like everybody else. And now you're going to tell me I got to look at this out my front door. I don't think you would like that. I don't like it. I'm here to tell you why I don't like it. And it's in the middle of a residential area that has been zoned agricultural and eventually to be residential, not commercial, not solar. And if you go with that, what's going to stop them from doing it for that whole 200 and something acres right there in the middle of a residential area?

Okay, that's all I have to say. Would you let me finish it? Sure. Say it on. The state state law said they passed a law saying that the state is not only in favor of solar. They changed the law even into the county code telling us we had to favor solar. Wait, wait, let me finish. I'm letting you finish.

Turn down solar cases and we're ending up in court over it. Okay. So what they're saying is we don't have a right to turn them down. And that's that's a crime in my mind because we're representing the people here, not just us. Well, I'm not here voting on solar whether I like it or don't like it or where they place it.

What I'm worried about is where the people live. You talk about Green Garden. Uh you may not remember it, but I was the county board member who Green Garden was my district. Okay. So I I'm very familiar and concerned about Green Guard residents and I have been for most of my adult life. Things have changed. You're anymore. That's just sir.

Okay. I have one more. when I was here before and they were told the people in the in the here were told oh you have to vote for it and they said no we don't let them come here and sue us to the state I was here when that was said yeah so we're now you're going to change it I don't I don't like it

good evening My name is Gary Lincoln. I live in Green Garden. I just have a question for John. If you could answer it fairly short, why do you need to be so argumentative? I don't understand it. I, you know, you act like you're angry that you're here. And my thing is, if you, in fact, you are angry that you're here, quit and put somebody else in here. Now, that's that's all I'm going to say about that. I I'll answer the qu. You said you be brief. I'll be brief. Yeah, I'm going to take because I want somebody here to give me the reason to say no that will stand up in court.

I think the reason

but but and but and I'm passionate. I'm passionate. So, and this is something that's happened here. We've had speakers at this and other meetings that I think when you're very emotionally invested, you don't hear clearly. So, I'm trying to be clear about the zoning issue here and the reason that I want to get all the right information and make sure that when I vote, it's a reason that's later on when it's challenged, we'll hold up because we have two ways this can go. We'll say the county board approves this whole thing and the residents of Green Garden have to sue to try to stop it or they turn it down and I guess the lawyers from the solar facility will sue to get it allowed.

That's really the two ways it's going to go. But I keep thinking in my mind, and I've had this in previous cases, that there must be something we're missing, something we can find. And I'm begging people to find it and point it out to me because I'll admit I'm not the smartest guy in the room. Could you look for it?

Part of my passion that I'm saying come to me with something that I could do not argue over zinc and hydric soils. Come to me with something in the solar ordinance state law. Maybe there's a light bulb moment here yet to go off. I think I I think that light bulb moment came a couple speakers ago when Melissa got up and and talked about the engineering aspects of it. I think a number of people have come up here and stated there's somewhere approval number I don't remember where the where the page was but it's the conditions that have to be met to either affirm or deny a zoning change. There's I I believe it's number one. It has something to do with affecting people negatively. I think that's what we're talking about here. I'm not talking about you building within 50 ft of my property line and I just don't like that. I'm saying it would affect my quality of life. If you need a reason to deny this, it's very simple. It's a quality of life. If you want to come and buy my house, we don't have a problem then. At least I don't. You want to buy my house and live 50t away from from a solar farm? God love you. Now, sir, I think you're the uh the chairman.

I am the chairman. Okay. You had said John was the vice chairman right away. Okay. I didn't know that you had said before that you had said that you really don't have a choice that you have to approve it. Correct? No, I said that's what the state says. Okay. We have to approve it. Okay. Then my next question is why are we all here tonight? This is We've asked that hundreds of times. See, that may explain some of my uh I I am serious. I've just spent after they changed the law, they were denied in Grenley County. They took them to court.

Yeah. and and they actually rewrote some of the law about the county the counties and included in that section of the county's code that state was encouraged to be 100% solar. We wanted solar. This was from okay the governor on down. So I understand all that. I'm just saying why why are we even hearing this matter? These guys should be able to come in and just say, "We're putting solar in this 45 acres and there's nothing you can do about it." Well, that's not true.

And then the county should give them the permit. Right. According to the law, I don't know why we're here because you we're listen to. You know, you're listening to the We're You said you work for the people. You work for the county, right? And you're supposed to take the wishes into consideration. That's correct. Would you allow, let's say, a steel mill to go in next door to Sunny Hill Nursing Home? I don't think so. Even if the state said, "We're really pushing for steel." You guys have pushed that away like crazy. I'll bet you a nickel to anything that none of you live near a proposed solar site. None of you. You I live right near Sorry for you then.

I do. I'm sorry. I live right near house. right near this.

This isn't right. And if somebody, as Dean said before, if somebody doesn't stand up and and try and put a stop to this, if we I'm not going to roll over on this. Too old to roll over on this. I'm tired of rolling over on stuff. This is ridiculous. And I think you folks should have a spine and at least recommend no. And then from there we'll we'll be at the next county board meeting and we'll have our say then and if things don't turn out right the way we wanted,

we'll look at our legal options. But at the very least, what is the harm to you guys and ladies personally to just say no to Michael? That's the harm. Go ahead. I'm sorry. The only harm is you end up in court and and uh you have to you have to uh I'm pay. Okay. You have to defend your reasoning for denying I'll go with you something. I'm serious. I'm not I'm not afraid of uh

I'll go with you. I'll go with any board member here that has to go to court and explain themselves. We did the last one. It went to court already. Okay. So, I'll give you my number. Let me know. Okay. But that's that's basically it. I mean, this is ridiculous. If if you guys are going to hide behind the fact I I shouldn't say that, but if you're going to go with this, you know what? Again, the innuendo is that we're not doing our job because you don't agree with us. No, I'm sorry. You know, it's not the case. I think YOU ARE DOING WE'RE AGONIZING over these cases. You don't know we've done our job.

Okay, let let me address the one question you asked because why are we doing this? So the way I understand this whole process is this board exists for the sole purpose. This is the one opportunity for the public to come. It's called public comment and make their case. County boards do not want to be mired in three days of testimony before they make a decision. So this venue is indeed the opportunity for the public to come and speak. Am I saying this right? and therefore your testimony becomes part of the record and should be reviewed by the county board and used in other decisions and is part of it. So that's why we are still hearing it even though we've got our hands handcuffed by the state. But you you're right. We have asked many times I know one of the commissioners is like why do we have to keep going through all this paperwork? But I think it gives a lot of people some relief to get to come here and tell us why.

Yeah. Okay. So, let's let's keep moving on so that we can have a vote tonight. And I I'm going to try not to talk anymore, but I'm looking for us to finish this up so we can get it moving. Okay. Thank you for your testimony, by the way.

I thought they all just

Yeah, they all raised their hand. Good evening. Oh, my glasses. My name is Jim Michaelitz. Lived in Green Garden Township for 34 years. And thank you for your perseverance tonight to all the board members. I'd like to focus on two issues that will directly affect every resident here, which is residential growth and property values. This is not just a land use decision. It is an economic decision that will shape the future of our townships for decades to come. First, the residential growth. People move here for open space, rural character, and long-term stability. A 90 acre solar facility with battery storage is not neutral. It is industrial use. Once you introduce this to a residential agricultural area, you change the trajectory of growth. Buyers will hesitate. Builders will do the same. Investments become stagnant. When growth slows, the township doesn't just stand still. It falls behind the other areas that are more attractive to new investors and homeowners. Second, property values. This is where the impact becomes personal and immediate. Real estate markets are like the stock market. They run on confidence. When buyers see large-scale solar, infrastructure, fencing, inverters, battery storage, and construction noise, they will not pay top dollar. They will want a discount or they will just walk

away completely. Even a 5 to10% impact on a $400,000 house amounts to 20 to $40,000 in lost value. This is not theoretical. This is lost equity. We have all worked decades to have what we have. This is not just visibility. It's uncertainty. It's uncertainty concerning long-term risks, battery stoages, will the project expand, what does decommissioning actually look like? And what about fairness to all homeowners who bought property and homes based on existing zoning and land use laws which most of us in here come under that that are being stripped away by Springfield. Finally, consider this. Property values drive tax base. This drives schools, infrastructure, and our services. If values decrease, growth slows, that will impact everything. We will all feel it in time. Please remember, as in real estate, location matters. Solar fields need to be located correctly, not next to families and homes. I urge you to protect residential stability and property values. Vote no. Once this is built, US solar will leave, but their consequences stay with all of us for a long time. Thank you very much.

Thanks for your testimony. Thank you.

Sure you all remember me. Kind of hard to forget. You see me every time. Uh I want to start out by saying I respect every member of the board. You guys are just trying to do your job like the rest of us. State your name.

Oh, my name is Alexa Snow. I live directly across from where they want to put this. I appreciate you listening. I also want to say that I did get a certified letter in the mail. However, my neighbors that are down the same driveway that I'm at did not. Why I got one and they didn't, I don't know. Um, and I would like to give you guys credit for paying attention to the Earthrise and everything we stated there. so you could come up with your your retorts to things. Um, one thing that I will say that I was hurt by was when um you chuckled for saying that the Army Corps has more important things to do than worry about us. We matter. We moved out there to matter. We do things that matter. We help the wildlife. We have our own bees that we actually take care of. We don't just stick them out in a field. We have sheep. We have goats. We have cows. We have horses that we take care of and maintain. I didn't hear anything about what would be done for these sheep that are supposed to be doing all of this maintenance on the grass. Um, now to the point you wanted a reason for the zoning. You're putting a potential bomb right in the middle of all this residential area. Those batteries, and I've done the research, and I know you're going to chuckle. There was a facility huge. They broke it down into five sections, cinder block walls, everything in between. The middle one exploded, caught on fire. There went the rest of it. The EPA came in and said, "What what are we supposed to do with all of this contaminated stuff? We can't throw it in the landfill. We don't have a way to get

rid of it out there. It gets hot. It gets cold. It gets water. It gets storms. There is no way that you can 100% tell me that this is safe as far as the batteries go." And that to me is a zoning issue. Go ahead and put that in the industrial area where that's more common to happen and there aren't residents living right there with children and animals that can be hurt by this. I thank you for listening and I hope you make the right decision. Thank you. I want and I wanted to respond to something that you said. Yes.

When he said about we've got better things to do or the court, we did not chuckle the audience. No, I said that they chuckled. I didn't I didn't mean I didn't mean any of you up there. It was just them. I caught him smiling and chuckling. I did not mean anybody on the board. Okay. Well, we didn't because the chairman had said that he was part of the Army Corps of Engineers. I would not be that disrespectful towards the board to say something that way.

I'm sorry that it came across that way. Okay. Thank you. My name's I live in Green Garden in front of the mic, please. Okay. And uh I just want to say I live in the United States and I listen to this board say they have to vote a certain way. Since what's that? Say your name, please.

Ted Lamb. Since when do we not have the right to make our own decisions? Since when is a state law that is bad to start with able to tell people how to vote? Can you tell me that the state law that's bad isn't determined to be bad until it's tested in court? When a judge says it's bad, you know, then wait, then it gets sent back the legislators to revoke. So, if a state law told you that you couldn't walk out of your house,

four hours a day, would you agree with it? Because it's a state law. I understand what you're saying. People need to stand up to laws like that. Yeah. They need to make decisions and say, "Everybody says that, but make my own decision and don't stand a judge to tell me I can't do this.

How many people get together and articles in the paper all the time? And he really surprised me that you didn't stand up to human rights people that live in a town should be able to say what goes on in that town. The county should be able to say what they want, not a judge to tell the whole county what it has to do. You should fight it. You should go to court. You should let them do it to you. How do you think uh countries like Germany in the 30s got such power? I understand.

Yeah. Think about it. think how you vote should be your decision, not a judge telling you how to vote. That's all I can tell you. So, sir, so far it has been my decision. Just so you know, proved here beyond a doubt in my opinion. Now, you have to make a decision whether you live in a country it's free to vote your way and stand up for it or not. That's your decision. I need to vote and then the general elections they need to vote. Get the people out. You don't want anyone. Are there any other speakers? Your turn.

Are there any other speakers? Yeah. Can I speak? Wait, wait, wait one second. I'm trying one more time. Are there any other speakers? This is your last chance. Okay. Please rebot.

John, I know you're uh primed and ready for some battery questions, but um would you like me to answer your questions first? Do your thing. Do your thing. Okay.

Um I don't have too much I don't have too much to speak on here, but I I do want to bring up just a a couple of points that were discussed um here. this evening. Um, one item I do want to just reference is the county and the zoning department do extensive research at this county uh for this board so that they assure that every application comes to them that is is complete. We went through extensive due diligence with this county to ensure that we were in compliance with all of their requirements and and I want to thank the county and the zoning department specifically for their due diligence in this application because it is a way more detailed application process than a lot of the counties in the state of Illinois. And that should make the residents feel more comfortable. That should make the board feel more comfortable. Hey,

it's my it's my turn to speak. Excuse me. Quiet down or you will be ejected from this room. You will be ejected from this floor. It'll go on Tik Tok. You had your rights. It'll go on Tik Tok. Well, that's fing that job. time. Sir, you can't speak from there. I thermal runaway on a battery. Are you qualified to explain that process to me? I can do my best.

Go ahead. What what is start run away on a battery in in your opinion or to your expertise?

It's when the fire itself has to and probably the most appropriate and safe thing is for the battery to actually for that fire to just continue to burn uh until it runs out. it is difficult to maintain that fire and the probably the safest thing to do is to actually just maintain the the area that's on fire itself to not allow it to spread whatsoever. So there are instances where there have been batteries that have gone through thermal runaway and the the safest thing to do is just ensure that that fire does not get any uh any larger than where it is and to allow that that system to run away. What I would say is that a lot of the thermal runaway news that we do hear happens when um it they are much older systems and not under the current compliance and standards that are today.

What causes the fire? Does the battery explode or is there a fire and then the battery becomes a part of it? there's no real explosion if it's under a kind of temperature controlled and a normal condition. Um, I can give an example of something that happened in Grundy County that I'm aware of after talking with their fire districts. Uh, there was a cell phone battery fire that happened in a manufacturing facility a couple years ago. There was a manufacturing facility that wasn't supposed to have batteries in it. It was a bunch of old cell phone batteries that were kind of piled up in a corner.

I'm aware of that. I want to know specific to solar situations, solar installations.

So, the the specific batteries that we design on on our projects are LFP or lithium iron phosphate batteries. These are the safest batteries on the market. They like they they truly are. And based on all the UL certifications, all of the rigorous testings that they have to go through, it is not the same compound as what is a an electric car. The idea of how and how these different from there is an electric car, you do everything you can to try to get a battery that's going to hold the most amount of capacity in the smallest amount of space. How these projects are designed is that we have a little bit of space to work with which allows us to make that system uh safer. And how the specific systems that we are designing is that they are single container systems. So they're about the size of a refrigerator is a good example to give for one. And um each of them are temperature controlled systems so that they have the ability to be uh disarmed at certain um at certain times. If there is an event in one cabinet, it will not spread to the other. Um we also have fire department connections to allow the fire department to safely connect from a proper distance. We have met with the fire department and actually

the batteries to it caught them on fire. Internal malfunction usually cells that short out and run away on their own.

Correct. Correct. Yeah. I mean, realistically, it is a incredible small chance that that could happen, but there is the possibility that something like that could happen. There's internal suppression systems that can handle this remotely to ensure the safety of people because the last thing we want is a firefighter to open up that cabinet door. We want everything to happen from a distance. And that's when we work with the fire department. Our team who does this for years will be training and bringing up so that fire departments are not just drop this if there are an event and and they know what to do.

I have a question. The um bad what's the lifespan of the battery and once they're no longer useful, how do you dispose of them? Yeah. So the lifespan depends ultimately on on the batteries that we that we procure. We haven't specifically procured these particular batteries for the site, but right now it is about 20 years is the term for for these batteries. And and that's um right now that's based on what the degradation kind of curves and analysis and engineering that we do to ensure that this battery still is operating at a certain efficiency to make sure that it makes sense for it to be on that site. Regarding the decommissioning that should also be in our application within the decommissioning agreement and how the proper way is to uh decommission and remove that from from the particular property and either recycle what we can or landfill what we can't.

So the lithium is not recyclable. And you do you keep about some of the other stuff we've asked about in you're putting in here. You say we haven't acquired them yet. You've also stated you have other properties, other solar places that you have operating. So would you know how, you know, there any issues with any of those battery facilities? Yeah. So to clarify, do you have other solar installations with best systems currently operating? We have two in Illinois right now. Yes. Yeah. We have one um Is that what you wanted? Yeah. And I we have one in KMED's territory. Yeah. And are they lithium batteries as well then? Do you know?

So it's an it's an iron phosphate compound. Yes. Lithium iron. Lithium iron phosphate. Correct. Yes. So they are the similar batteries as what you would be installing here. Yes. It would be the same compound. Yes. And how old are those facilities?

Those facilities are approximately a year old. But these are the first facilities we have in Illinois. These are not the f first facilities that our our company um has put in operation. They I believe their oldest system is somewhere between five and six years old. And so if I'm looking at your application, I think it showed four pads for four batteries. Is that what it was? Is there any dying, any pollution control, anything that's required? So on my farm, if I have a fuel tank over, 1100 gallons, I got to have a dyke. Yeah. Yeah.

So if I spring a leak, we know we control the leak. Now if you have a fire or a leak or something goes wrong with that is or these just sit on a what is the I guess the environmental remediation to control these batteries in the event of a fire or leak. So the typical design is is yes they're sitting on just a a concrete pad that would support it based on a structural engineer's design and then there is a um ultimately it is based on the jurisdictional requirements. So, what is your county? What is the fire department requirement for us to do so? Is the requirement meaning that there has to be a dyke around it? Is it mean that there has to be an underground containment facility? Every ordinance has their own. Right now, we just have the the specs on the site plan for zoning purposes. When we get to the detailed engineering process, the detailed design process, and when we can actually submit plans to your county to review, all of that will be what is the requirement for for the specific county and the county has the authority to comment on or make us add anything if we if we need to.

So then the state has superseded the county's authority on the zoning matter, but they haven't on the design. Correct. So technically our county could have an engineer that says we're really concerned about the neighborhood getting gases from a fire or pollution of the watershed in case there was leech. We know the water is going to run off site and come down through this creek flowing north and do I believe that would probably be Prairie Creek in that instance. They could say, "Hey, let's build an underground vault that these sit on top of. There's ever a problem." Boom. We blow a charge, drop in the vault, a sealed lid comes over and just closes up. They could do that. The county could make that and you'd have to comply then

in the county's building permit code. Yes, they could. They could imply something that we would have to do as part of our building permit process.

Get the county on that. So, you know, because I've heard this multiple times in solar cases that you wouldn't want to live next to one. And I astonished some people by telling them I wouldn't mind living next to one because I'm a farmer. I would welcome a solar farm over a warehouse or neighborhood. I mean, neighborhoods being built next to my farm have been the bane of my existence most of my adult life as a farmer. But knowing that I was living next to a battery energy storage system would cause me a little more concern, especially if you were up wind to the prevailing winds. And I thought I knew my whole life that the prevailing winds were just about always southwest. But the last three or four summers, I keep getting stuck with this terrible northeast wind. Even though the uh meteorologist says 80% of the winds in Chicago land from the northeast happen in April, May, I keep getting them in July and August. And it really ticks me off because I have this one farmer next to my field that's an organic farmer that does doesn't control his thistles. So every time I go by his thistle patch, I'm like, "Well, them damn things are blowing onto my property." The prevailing wind's supposed to be southwest. It's not doing that anymore. So the battery energy storage system is the way that I would want to see more regulations on the system is even though we all have a battery like this.

Oh, it is. I'm assuming these batteries that you're mounting are probably 20 to 40 tons, something that fits on a semi, they're big. Yeah, he said the size of a refrigerator. Well, then he doesn't know the exact weight, but they're big. And I get why we need to have them because you got to store the energy until when it's needed the most. But um let's go on with Yeah, I I I Oh, you're not done.

No, what I was just asking. No, what I was just going to say was that um I think that's a good point of what you have like right people are comfortable with carrying it in their pocket. Now yes, it's not 20 tons in your pocket, but you're comfortable with carrying a battery in your pocket. We still have to go through the same requirements and and legislation for even to be able to present the application, the building permit application to your department for review. So your county kind of has the pen there with the building permit, especially with the batteries and especially with the solar project. It's the same way. So then I'll address the thing about the landowner of this project. I don't know them, but it was said that somebody was shocked to know what my true feelings are about, I'm assuming, this solar case or other ones that have been in the area. Is em domain something you use to acquire the lease to this land?

Never. No. So you negotiated a lease with this land owner. You didn't make them do it. I can walk you through the Where is this?

I can walk you through the process. So what we do is we go through extensive uh due diligence in the state of Illinois based on utility uh and based on site locations. So based on and then we submit applications to the utility to understand hosted capacity and all of that. Harry walked through it very well that the power that's being produced here is not a grid scale project. We're not sending power to Chicago. This is all distribution related power. And all those infrastructure upgrades that we're providing can be tapped on by new housing developments or new commercial developments that are coming to this area where they're where they don't or KMED does not have to go and do that work today.

But my point through that due dilig and and sorry, I'll I'll get to your point here. Through that due diligence, we then send packets to land owners. We don't do door knocking. We don't do anything like that. If they are interested in what we send them, then they reach out to us. We don't reach out to anyone if we don't hear from them or force our hand in any way. They only reach out to us because they are interested in our proposal. So, after an initial contact, they called you and said, "I'm interested." and it was pursued farther to where you signed a lease and are now before this zoning board.

And what we always try to do is yes, owning land is very important. I think we can all agree with that. But what's more important to us as a company is for the land owners who that have owned the land have the ability to own the land into the future and be able to pass that down to their their kids. because we we don't we don't buy property from land owners. We lease it from them to allow them to continue to own it. Cuz my family are farmers in this state of Illinois. And it is incredibly difficult. And John, I I almost for sure you would agree with me here. It is a tough and profitable business to to make right now. And and my family is considering selling all the time. And this would be one reason why they could feel like they can hold on to a little bit more of it for a little bit longer.

Right. You're making a point here because I've seen a couple solar cases where the company owned the land and I could only wonder if they don't build the solar farm, what are they going to do?

What are they going to do with the land? But let me play devil's advocate here. Of course, you don't want to own this land because if those batteries implode and 20 acres of this 40acre sites becomes a super fund cleanup site, you can walk away or your company filed bankruptcy and it's now on the landowner. I would hope the land owner has put in some kind of safeguards in their lease to protect them from such. There's also safeguards within the agricultural impact mitigation agreement that we execute with the department of agriculture that requires us to put bonding and that that bond and cost estimate needs to be reviewed every 5 years to ensure that the appropriate monies are at the county so that if we don't clean it up or who we're getting financing doesn't clean it up, the county has the ability to use that money to ensure that they have the money to clean it up. So then the bonding for a battery energy storage system would have significantly higher I think in my mind it should be maybe double triple.

That is correct. I don't know if it's double or triple but it is comforts environmental cleanup. It it covers what it takes to decommission the facility and bring it back to it. It does not decomi it does not provide costs for if there's an event. However, the county does require us to carry insurance which will then cover if there is an event.

So then this falls into the whole thing about the people's constitutional rights that live around their feel that their constitutional rights exceed the constitutional rights of the land owner to rent the land to you which then I could extrapolate that since I'm a farmer and technically anti-development. Well, then most of the residents in Green Garden wouldn't exist because I if I sat on this board and expressed my own will, every time a subdivision plat review came or estate zoning came up to break an 80acre piece and all the frontage into estate zoning, I would just say no, no, no, no, no. Because that's my personal opinion. So where where do I sort out the I guess this is a question for you. The rights of the neighbors who are concerned about what this will do to their property values versus the rights of the land owner who wants to make a I will say a fair return on his land to you. I mean ultimately this is up to up to your board.

This is a question you shouldn't even answer. Ultimately, this is up to your board to feel that if the application meets the requirements of the county and the state law. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm done. Thank you. I don't want anybody to think I wasn't trying to be diligent. Did anyone else on the board have any other questions? Yes. of the battery installations that you have installed with your company, have any of them caught on fire? We have not had an event. No. To date. Okay. Good to know. So, you said two in Illinois. How many total in the United States? Do you know offhand?

I don't know the exact number off hand. No. And how long have you been a civil engineer for this company? I I'm not a civil engineer for this particular company. I'm a civil engineer out of school. So that how long how long have you been serving working for this company in the capacity of your I mean you have a Yes, I've been working for the company for just under five years. Uh I was a civil engineer and storm water engineer for six years out of school before this. Okay. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Do I let you batteries?

No. No. What's their meaning? Not many batteries. It makes my department. You know, I I do have one question for staff. Yeah. One just one question. There we go.

Uh regarding because I've heard application completeness mentioned numerous times. Um and specifically in the wetland delineation via is that is it considered complete from the wetland delineations that they had noted from the Army Corps of Engineers from I believe they called it the uh the tabletop versus uh is it complete then or is it considered complete once you know true geotechnicals have been provided? So with regards to the preliminary site plan, um usually what we would accept at time of the specially use permit would be a desktop review of flood planes wetlands knowing that they would have to do a more extensive due diligence when the weather changes and they are prepping their actual permit submitts. Our engineering department would look at wetland delineations. Um depending on the results of that they may require further wetland delineations um based on their standards it may require consultation with Army Corps of Engineer if there's certain drainage patterns or um IDNR for permitting requirements with that road access would be required at time of permitting. So they'd be working with the road districts to make sure that they actually have the access permits in place. And with that, that's usually road surveys, um, road use agreements if the road commissioner wants to entertain that, or it may just be submit the information for access permit and pay the permit fees and they'll get the approvals from the road district, which then they'll submit to our office. We associated as part of that permit, and once everything is checked off, they get their permit to build.

Okay, that answers. Thank you. Uh, we have heard testimony both sides. So, I'm going to call for a vote. CC-26-017 S-26-00009 S-26-016 V-26-115 B-26-116 and V-26117 I would like a motion on these complete cases. So, if I may get them one at a time, I'd appreciate it. Someone ready to make a motion.

Mr. Chairman on KZC26-017 uh for special use permit number 26-009. I'd like to make a motion to approve special use permit for commercial solar facility with four conditions. Second. I have a motion to second. I have a roll call vote. Kimberly Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner? Yes. Roger Bettinhousen. No. Matt Garland, no. Lewis Navarat, yes. Karen Warick, no. And chairman Hugh Stippen.

Yes. Passes four to three. Same case ZC 26014 for special use permit number 26-016 make motion to approve special use permit for battery energy storage facility with four conditions. Second second. Kimberly Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner. No. Roger Bettton. No. Matt Garland. Nope. Lewis Navarat.

Yes. Karen Warick. No. And Chairman Hugh Stippen. No. System. Three to three. Two. Two. Two to five. I have L. Oh, you I'm sorry. Hugh Stippin voted no. Yes, he did. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I put Yes. Okay. Two to four. Two to five. Two to five. Denise. We got your back.

Same case. CC26S017 for variance number 26115 for variance for maximum ground cover plant height from 13 in to 36 in. Second. No sh Kimberly Mitchell. Yes. John Kefner. Yes. Roger Bettinhousen. No. Matt Garland. Yes. Lewis Navarat. Yes. Karen Warick. No. And Chairman Houston. Yes.

Five to two passes. Same case Z626-017. Um for variance 26116 variance for number of required rowings from five times to four times for pin number 181311-2000- 09- 0000 second motion second roll call please. Kimberly Mitchell, yes. John Kefner, yes. Roger Bettton, no. Matt Garland, yes. Lewis Navarat, yes. Karen Warick, no.

And Hugh Stippen, yes. Passes. in KCC26-017 variance 26-117 variance for maximum ground cover plant height from 13 in to 36 in for pin 18-13-11-2000- 0200-0000 second Kimberly Mitchell yes John Kefner yes Roger Bentonhausen no Matt Garland yes Lewis Nav Barat. Yes. Karen Warick. No. And chairman Hugh Stippen. Yes. Yes.

MKC26-017 for variance number 26-118. Variance for number of required mowing from five times to four times for pin 18-13-11-2000- 020-0000. Second. Kimberly Mitchell, yes. John Kefner, yes. Roger Bettton, no. Matt Garland, yes. Lewis Navarat, yes. Karen Warick, no. And Chairman Houston,

yes. Passes. Why? Why do they put the buildings on those things? We've reached the because there's a huge end of our evening and start laundry turn their air conditioners down and the maximum solar capacity of a solar we have no other so they got to store some executive assessor or anything 7 o'clock tonight. So, our next meeting will be scheduled for May 19th at a special meeting with a special meeting on May 12th

at 5:30 at Renaissance Center. There you go. What's explain to us? May I have a motion for adjournment? on the real hot. Yeah, I have a motion to adjourn even though you're not making a phone. Second. Okay, we're have a motion to second. All in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? Same side. All right, we're a jerk storm that time needs