Buying Land in Marshall County, Illinois

Zoning: a county-level ordinance with an active committee structure

Marshall County adopted its current Zoning Ordinance on December 11, 2008, and added a separate Subdivision Ordinance in 2016; both cover unincorporated county land under 55 ILCS 5 Division 5-12, while land inside an incorporated city or village -- including Lacon, Henry, Toluca, Sparland, and Wenona -- falls under that municipality's own zoning instead. A County Board-appointed Zoning Administrator handles day-to-day administration, a Zoning Committee meets every two months at the Marshall County Highway Department board room to review applications, and a Zoning Board of Appeals meets monthly for variance and special-use requests that need a public hearing. The zoning office is located at 552 State Route 26 in Lacon.

Marshall County has 12 townships (including La Prairie, Lacon, Richland, Roberts, Saratoga, Steuben, and Whitefield) and operates under Illinois's standard township form of county government -- not one of the state's 17 commission-form counties. Because the county itself has adopted zoning, Article 110 township zoning does not independently apply in any Marshall County township; the county's own ordinance, administered as described above, is the controlling authority in unincorporated areas.

Wind energy: one long-operating project, one more recent county approval

Marshall County has real, on-the-ground wind development, though on a smaller scale than some of Illinois's more wind-intensive counties. The Camp Grove Wind Farm -- 100 GE 1.5 MW turbines split 60/40 between Marshall and neighboring Stark County, for 150 MW total -- has been operating since November 2007. More recently, the Marshall County Board granted a special use permit in November 2019 to the Bennington Wind Project, 33 turbines at roughly 2.8 MW each proposed by Minonk Stewardship Wind LLC (a joint venture of Akuo Energy USA and Tiskilwa-based Stewardship Energy LLC) in Bennington Township southeast of Toluca, near Interstate 39.

See our dedicated wind and solar leasing page for Marshall County for what these two projects mean if you're evaluating a lease offer or buying land near either footprint -- including a correction worth knowing about: several similarly-named wind projects that surface in a general search (a "Laurel Wind Farm" and a proposed "Marshall Wind Energy Center") turn out to belong to a different Marshall County, in Iowa, and have nothing to do with this county.

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. Marshall County's own zoning ordinance, including whatever specific wind/solar provisions it contains, operates within that statewide ceiling; confirm current, specific setback and decommissioning requirements directly with the Zoning Administrator's office.

Septic, GIS, and other departments to know

Septic (private sewage disposal) permitting in Marshall County runs through the Bureau, Putnam & Marshall County Health Departments, a consolidated three-county agency headquartered at 319 6th St. in Lacon. Applications require soil-boring data from a certified soil classifier or an Illinois-licensed professional engineer, are typically processed within about five business days once complete, are valid for one year, and require 48 hours' notice to the department before a system is backfilled so a final inspection can be scheduled.

The Marshall County Assessor and County Clerk & Recorder both operate out of the Marshall County Courthouse at 122 North Prairie Street in Lacon -- the Recorder's office is where a wind-lease easement affecting a specific parcel would be filed. GIS parcel maps are available through the county's online mapping portal. University of Illinois Extension serves Marshall County jointly with Bureau, LaSalle, and Putnam Counties.