Buying Land in Kankakee County, Illinois

Zoning: a countywide ordinance with a 20-acre agricultural floor

Kankakee County's zoning ordinance is Chapter 121 of the County Code, administered by the county's Regional Planning Department -- its Planning Division handles land-use planning, zoning changes, and subdivision plat review, while a separate Building Division (189 E. Court Street, Room 201, Kankakee; 815-937-2940) monitors new construction and the maintenance or remodeling of existing structures. As with every Illinois county, this authority under 55 ILCS 5 Division 5-12 covers only unincorporated territory; the city of Kankakee and the county's other incorporated municipalities administer their own separate zoning codes inside their corporate limits.

The county's A1 Agricultural District carries a 20-acre minimum parcel requirement -- worth confirming directly for any smaller agricultural tract, since land below that threshold may require a variance or rezoning, or may already sit as a legal nonconforming lot from before the current ordinance. A rezoning or special-use request typically routes through the Regional Planning Commission before reaching the County Board for final action. Kankakee County has 17 townships, with the original six (Yellowhead, Momence, Aroma, Bourbonnais, Limestone, and Rockville) dating to the county's first Board of Supervisors meeting in Momence on July 18, 1853; today's County Board has 28 members, one elected per district for a four-year term, with a Board Chairman elected by the members to a two-year term. Because Kankakee County has adopted countywide zoning, Article 110 township zoning does not independently apply in any Kankakee County township.

A heavily agricultural county, with a major wind and solar project now underway

Kankakee County remains genuinely agricultural: roughly 72% of its 432,997 total acres -- nearly 313,000 acres -- was classified as farmland in the 2017 Census of Agriculture, with corn as the leading crop (2021-era yield data put countywide corn yields in the mid-190-bushel-per-acre range) and soybeans a close second; agriculture has been estimated to account for roughly 17% of the county's total economic output. Those specific figures are dated and should be treated as approximate rather than a current snapshot, but the underlying pattern -- a county whose land base is dominated by row-crop agriculture -- is well established.

That agricultural land base is now also hosting a major utility-scale energy project. Heritage Prairie Wind, a Pattern Energy/Repsol Renewables joint venture, is a 616.5 MW wind facility (a roughly $2.1 billion investment) spanning western Kankakee County and northeastern Livingston County, with a companion Heritage Prairie Solar component representing roughly $500 million more -- together reported at approximately $2.6 billion. Construction was targeted to begin around mid-2026 with commercial operation in 2028, and the project is projected to generate roughly $175 million in new tax revenue for Kankakee and Livingston Counties combined over a 30-to-40-year project life. This same project also appears on this site's Livingston County hub; if a parcel sits in western Kankakee County, ask the Regional Planning Department directly about current lease activity, recorded easements, and construction-phase timelines near it.

The statewide rules behind local wind and solar siting

Illinois counties don't have unlimited discretion over commercial wind and solar siting. Public Act 102-1123, signed January 27, 2023, amended 55 ILCS 5/5-12020 of the Counties Code to set statewide siting standards -- covering setbacks, turbine height, decommissioning, and agricultural-land considerations -- that a county's own ordinance cannot exceed in restrictiveness, and it bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development. Confirm Kankakee County's own current, specific wind and solar siting provisions directly with the Regional Planning Department given the scale of the Heritage Prairie project already underway.

Septic, flood risk, and other departments to know

Septic and well permitting in Kankakee County runs through the Kankakee County Health Department (KCHD), at 2390 W. Station Street, Kankakee (815-802-9400, option 3), which issues permits for new private sewage systems and private wells, conducts installation inspections, and performs sanitary surveys -- commonly requested during a property sale or refinance and often required by a lender or buyer. All septic work falls under the statewide IDPH Title 77 Part 905 framework.

The Kankakee River runs through the county, and the Regional Planning Department maintains FEMA floodplain maps and a Floodplain Management program as part of the county's emergency-preparedness function; check current FEMA Flood Map Service Center data directly for any parcel near the river. The Supervisor of Assessments and Assessor's offices (189 E. Court St., Kankakee) handle property valuation, the Recorder's office (same address) holds deeds, easements, and plats, and the county's K3GIS system provides parcel mapping. University of Illinois Extension serves Kankakee County jointly with Grundy and Will Counties from an office at 1650 Commerce Drive in Bourbonnais.