Buying Land in Bureau County, Illinois

Zoning: county-administered, except in nine of its own towns

The Bureau County Planning & Zoning Department (Room B-5, Courthouse, 700 S. Main St., Princeton, IL 61356; (815) 875-1631) has zoning jurisdiction over unincorporated Bureau County and, notably, over 14 of the county's smaller incorporated towns that have chosen not to adopt their own zoning ordinance: Arlington, Buda, Bureau, Cherry, Dover, Hollowayville, LaMoille, Malden, Manlius, Mineral, New Bedford, Ohio, Sheffield, and Wyanet. That's a meaningfully broader reach than the typical Illinois county, which usually stops at the unincorporated line.

The flip side is that Princeton -- the county seat and largest city -- is not one of those towns. Princeton and eight other municipalities (Dalzell, DePue, Ladd, Neponset, Seatonville, Spring Valley, Tiskilwa, and Walnut) each administer their own separate zoning ordinance, entirely outside county jurisdiction. Princeton's own Building & Zoning Department (2 S. Main St., Princeton, IL 61356; (815) 879-3381) handles zoning and permitting inside city limits. Before assuming which office to call, check whether your parcel sits in unincorporated Bureau County, one of the 14 county-zoned towns, or one of the 9 self-zoned municipalities -- the county's own Municipal Zoning Agencies directory lists the current split.

An unusually mature wind energy county

Bureau County sits within one of Illinois's more established wind-development corridors, and it shows: three utility-scale wind farms are already operating here. Big Sky Wind (239 MW, owned by RWE Renewables, operational since February 2011), Walnut Ridge Wind Farm (212 MW, owned by BHE Renewables), and Providence Heights Wind (72 MW across 36 turbines, owned by Avangrid Renewables, operational since mid-2008) together represent roughly 523 megawatts of installed capacity and a substantial footprint of land already under lease or easement for turbines, access roads, and collector lines.

A fourth project, proposed by Leeward Renewable Energy at up to 147 MW and 52 turbines, would have added an estimated $35 million in landowner lease payments and $48.8 million in local tax revenue -- but as of mid-2026, it was delayed by a federal-level permitting roadblock affecting wind development across dozens of states, per multiple Illinois public radio reports. Whether that project ultimately proceeds, and on what timeline, is not resolved as of this writing. See our dedicated page on wind and solar leasing in Bureau County for what all of this means if you've been offered a lease, or are buying land already under one, or near a proposed project.

The statewide rules behind local wind and solar siting

Illinois counties don't have unlimited discretion to regulate commercial wind and solar. Public Act 102-1123, signed January 27, 2023, amended 55 ILCS 5/5-12020 of the Counties Code to set statewide siting standards -- covering setback distances, blade-tip heights, decommissioning requirements, drainage plans, and agricultural-land considerations -- that a county's own wind/solar ordinance cannot exceed in restrictiveness. The law also bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development and requires a public hearing within 45 days of an application being submitted. That statewide floor (or rather, ceiling on restrictiveness) is directly relevant to Bureau County given its existing wind farms and the pending Leeward project; see the dedicated wind and solar leasing page for how this plays out locally.

Septic, GIS, and other departments to know

Septic permitting in Bureau County runs through the Bureau, Putnam & Marshall Health Department, a shared multi-county health department ((815) 872-5091 for Bureau County-specific questions), which requires 48 hours' notice before septic work begins and generally processes complete permit applications within 5 business days, under the statewide IDPH Title 77 Part 905 code.

The Bureau County Supervisor of Assessments (700 S. Main St., Suite 12, Princeton, IL 61356; (815) 875-6478; ccao@bureaucounty-il.gov) provides free online access to parcel data, ownership, and assessed values, and handles property valuation questions. The Recorder's office ((815) 875-2014) and Treasurer ((815) 872-3241) are both also based at the county courthouse. University of Illinois Extension serves Bureau County jointly with LaSalle, Marshall, and Putnam Counties, with a branch office in Princeton (850 E. Thompson St.; (815) 875-2878) alongside its main office in Oglesby.