Buying Land in Bond County, Illinois

Zoning: one countywide ordinance, nine townships

Bond County has adopted its own zoning ordinance, applying -- as with every Illinois county under 55 ILCS 5 Division 5-12 -- only in unincorporated territory outside Greenville and the county's other incorporated municipalities. The county's Zoning and Building Inspector office (207 North 2nd Street, Greenville) handles zoning-permit applications and building-permit issuance together, and the county's Zoning Board of Appeals hears rezoning requests, special-use applications, and variances at regular public meetings. Because Bond County has adopted zoning countywide, none of its nine townships -- Burgess, Central, LaGrange, Mills, Mulberry Grove, Old Ripley, Pleasant Mound, Shoal Creek, and Tamalco -- retains independent zoning authority under Illinois's Township Code (60 ILCS 1, Article 110); the county ordinance is what governs unincorporated land in all of them.

Solar and wind: a real, current issue for a rural Illinois county

In January 2023, Illinois enacted Public Act 102-1123, a statewide law that standardizes how counties can regulate commercial-scale wind and solar energy facilities: counties cannot ban such projects or impose blanket moratoriums, and any local siting standard for setbacks, height, noise, or decommissioning cannot be more restrictive than the state's own baseline. Bond County updated its zoning ordinance in mid-2025 to add Solar/Wind Farm Energy System (SWFES) provisions consistent with that law -- a utility-scale system on a parcel of five or more acres, built primarily to sell electricity wholesale or retail, is defined as an SWFES and requires a Special Use Permit, available only in the county's Agricultural, Commercial, or Industrial zoning districts.

This isn't a hypothetical concern locally: local news coverage in 2025 described several active community-solar proposals in the county, including projects near the Sorento Avenue/Illinois Route 127 intersection, near Patriots Park, and near the Bond County VFW building, among others in various stages of application and construction. If you're buying land in an agricultural district here -- whether or not you intend to lease it for solar or wind yourself -- it's worth asking the Zoning office whether any solar/wind special-use applications are pending near a specific parcel, since a large neighboring installation can affect everything from viewsheds to future road-use agreements.

Septic, GIS, and land records

The Bond County Health Department (1520 S. 4th Street, Greenville) handles private sewage disposal permitting -- a permit is required before installing, replacing, or modifying a septic system, applying Illinois's statewide IDPH Title 77 Part 905 standards. The County Clerk & Recorder's office (200 W. College Avenue, at the Bond County Courthouse) holds recorded deeds, easements, and plats, and the county Assessor's office (203 W. College Avenue) handles property valuation. Bond County also maintains an online GIS parcel-mapping viewer for property research.

Bond County's agricultural base is substantial for its size -- the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture counted 622 farms across 161,590 acres in the county, averaging 260 acres per farm. University of Illinois Extension serves Bond County through its regional office covering Bond, Clinton, Jefferson, Marion, and Washington Counties, based in Pocahontas, useful for farmland-specific questions beyond what a national buying-land guide covers.