A proposal to amend the Sangamon County’s data center ordinance remained tabled following the county’s May 21 Zoning and Land Use Committee meeting.
The two-page ordinance, Chapter 17.39 of Sangamon County Code, was quietly introduced last spring and passed the County Board without issue in July.
Since then, board members and proponents of the area’s first data center have said the proposal from CyrusOne introduced in November is in accordance with the July 2025 ordinance passed to formally allow data centers in Sangamon County.
The Zoning and Land Use Committee also did not take any action on a recent proposal by District 7 board member Craig Hall, who represents the area where the Double Black Diamond Solar Farm opened last year and where the CyrusOne project is slated to be built. Hall’s proposal would attempt to circumvent the state’s latest laws that prevent local governments from having stricter authority on zoning for renewable energy projects.
A 2023 law specifically “requires counties to allow commercial, utility-scale solar and wind energy conversion systems to be sited in areas zoned for agricultural or industrial use,” according to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign fact page. “A county can have more lax requirements than called for in state law, but it cannot have more restrictive requirements,” though no mention of rezoning land so its not sited for agricultural or industrial use is outlined.
Don Craven, a lawyer who represents some of the almost two dozen townships and villages that have expressed support for Hall’s proposal, said it would be legally feasible to rezone 1.5 miles of buffer real estate that municipalities say would allow them to grow residential subdivisions as local leaders see fit.
“If you rezone it so that agricultural and industrial uses are not part of the zoning process, the solar bill of rights doesn’t apply,” Craven said. “What we want to do is rezone these residential, which will allow this committee (Zoning and Land Use) and the villages – through this committee – to have a say in how that land around those villages is used.”
However, the board’s legal adviser, assistant state’s attorney Joel Benoit, said he was unsure of the proposal’s legality and has sought outside counsel from Daniel Hamilton, a partner at the Springfield-based law firm Brown, Hay and Stephens.
“(Hall) got the ball rolling on something that people are interested in, and we’re going to look at it,” Benoit said.
The same evening, the Sangamon County Zoning Board of Appeals heard complaints from residents of Lenhart Road about a proposed 20-acre solar farm adjacent to a Lenhart housing subdivision, which ultimately received approval.
Summit Ridge Energy, a Virginia-based company, has more than 100 solar farms in Illinois, and Moira Cronin, director of project development, said “it’s very common that you have mixed-use zoning and, at some point, they need to intersect.”
Cronin also stressed to residents in attendance that they could speak to her after the meeting in case they had additional questions and referenced Summit Ridge Energy being open to community meetings so landowners can share their thoughts.
Although Cronin said a residential solar farm would provide the opportunity for home owners to potentially lower their electricity bills by switching to solar power, Lenhart Road residents mentioned concerns around construction, traffic, vandalism and what may happen to property values.
Public commentators frequently referenced the Double Black Diamond Solar Farm that opened last year in southwest Sangamon County, although at 4,000 acres that project dwarfs the 20 acres planned for Lenhart Road. Cronin said Summit Ridge would install a seven-foot fence to guard the panels from any vandalism.
Craven, who attended both meetings, told the Zoning and Land Use Committee that municipalities are wanting some assurances when it comes to managing their limited real estate, especially as Gov. JB Pritzker’s high-priority BUILD plan looms.
“There’s a whole lot more land out there outside the mile-and-a-half limits that would still be subject to the solar bill of rights and, if the solar companies want to take advantage of the bill of rights, go there. But let our villages grow the way we can grow,” he said.
The Lenhart Road solar project is slated to be voted on at the June 9 Sangamon County Board meeting.
