Buying Land in Fulton County, Illinois

Zoning: countywide, split between two offices

Fulton County's Zoning Ordinance is administered day to day through the county's Zoning and Community Development Office at 257 W. Lincoln in Lewistown ((309) 547-0902, open limited morning hours plus by appointment), which handles zoning permit applications for the erection, reconstruction, structural alteration, or use of buildings and premises. Separately, the county's Chief County Assessment Officer (Julie A. Russell, CIAO-S, at 100 N. Main Street, Room 102, Lewistown; (309) 547-3041 ext. 113) holds the statutory titles of Zoning Administrator and Plat Act Officer. The exact day-to-day division between these two offices wasn't fully clarified in this research pass -- when in doubt, start with the Zoning and Community Development Office for a permit application and the Assessment Office for plat-act/subdivision questions.

Fulton County has 26 townships and uses Illinois's standard township form of government rather than the commission form used by 17 of the state's 102 counties. Because the county has adopted countywide zoning, Illinois's Article 110 township zoning does not independently apply in any Fulton County township -- the county's zoning offices are the operative authority for unincorporated land regardless of which township it sits in.

From strip mines to state wildlife areas: a different kind of coal legacy

Coal mining near Cuba and Lewistown in Fulton County dates back to at least 1859, when the Winterbottom and Butler mines opened. But what most distinguishes Fulton County from Illinois's deep-shaft coal counties is the scale of its strip mining, which ran from the late 1880s through the mid-1980s. That surface mining left the county with an extraordinary number of water-filled pits -- 961 such sites covering roughly 2,104 acres as of a 1962 count -- and today Fulton County ranks second in Illinois with more than 2,500 water impoundments, according to Peoria Magazine reporting.

Two of the largest reclaimed areas are now managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as public wildlife areas. Banner Marsh State Fish and Wildlife Area covers roughly 4,363 acres straddling Fulton and Peoria Counties -- an estimated 90% of it was strip-mined for coal from the late 1880s to the mid-1980s -- and now offers more than 2,400 acres of water with good-to-very-good fishing for bass, crappie, and muskie. Double T State Fish and Wildlife Area, roughly 1,961 acres, was established in 2001 on former strip-mined land and continues to undergo remediation. Because so much of the county's mining land has been converted to public recreational use rather than remaining as scattered private hazard sites, Fulton County's mining legacy shows up differently for a land buyer than it does in a deep-shaft county -- see our dedicated recreational-land page for what this means for anyone specifically looking at hunting, fishing, or recreational property near these areas.

That mining history still carries the same statutory insurance consequence as elsewhere in Illinois's coal belt: Fulton County is one of 34 Illinois counties in which the Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Act (215 ILCS 5, Article XXXVIIIA) requires mine subsidence coverage to be included in property insurance policies, generally added automatically up to the same limit as fire or windstorm coverage unless waived in writing. Confirm current terms with your insurer, and check a specific parcel against the Illinois State Geological Survey's Coal Mine Locator if it sits near a historic mining area.

Septic, GIS, and other departments to know

Septic (private sewage disposal) and well permitting in Fulton County runs through the Fulton County Health Department's Environmental Health division (700 E. Oak Street, Canton; (309) 647-1134 ext. 230) under the statewide IDPH Title 77 Part 905 code. GIS parcel data is available through the county's online Parcel Inquiry System, tied to the Supervisor of Assessments office, and University of Illinois Extension serves Fulton County jointly with Mason, Peoria, and Tazewell Counties, with a local office at 15411 N. IL 100 Highway, Lewistown ((309) 547-3711) -- relevant to the county's substantial corn-and-soybean agricultural sector alongside its reclaimed-mine recreational land.