Buying Land in Peoria County, Illinois

Zoning: a Unified Development Ordinance for unincorporated land

Peoria County's Planning & Zoning Department administers the county's Unified Development Ordinance -- Chapter 20 of the County Code -- covering unincorporated land under 55 ILCS 5 Division 5-12. Land inside the City of Peoria itself, or any of the county's other incorporated municipalities, is governed by that municipality's own zoning instead. The county's GIS-based Zoning Finder tool lets you check a specific parcel's zoning district directly, and the Planning & Zoning office can confirm by address or Parcel/Tax ID whether a property sits in unincorporated territory in the first place.

Peoria County has 19 townships as of May 2021, when West Peoria Township was formally dissolved -- one fewer than the county's historical count. Governance runs through an 18-member County Board (one member per district) with a peer-elected chairperson, which delegates day-to-day administration to a hired County Administrator overseeing county departments. This is standard Illinois township-county government, not one of the state's 17 commission-form counties, and because Peoria County has adopted its own countywide zoning ordinance, Article 110 township zoning does not independently apply in any Peoria County township.

A live wind farm application, on top of substantial existing solar

Peoria County's Planning & Zoning office has approved 37 special-use permits for commercial solar facilities since the county first drafted solar ordinances in 2017 -- a meaningful, sustained pace of development, not a one-off. Residential solar permitting has grown even faster: applications rose from roughly 131 in 2022 to 270 in 2023, according to the county's own reporting. Both commercial wind and solar facilities are handled as special uses under the Unified Development Ordinance's agricultural zoning districts (A-1 Agricultural Preservation and A-2 Agricultural), subject to the ordinance's Section 7.2 wind-energy provisions and comparable solar provisions.

The newest and largest project by far is still pending as of this writing: on August 14, 2026, Repsol Renewables (a Spanish global renewable-energy firm) filed a special-use application for the Four Creeks Wind Project, proposing roughly 113 turbines -- up to nearly 660 feet tall, with a combined capacity of up to 663 MW -- across more than 27,000 acres in the county's northwest corner, north of Brimfield and west of Princeville, extending to the Knox and Stark county lines. Peoria County's Zoning Board of Appeals has scheduled public hearings beginning September 14, 2026 and continuing on additional dates through early October. If you're buying land in or near that project area, this is a genuinely live, unresolved question -- check the current status of the application directly with Peoria County Planning & Zoning (the county has posted materials at peoriacounty.gov/wind) rather than assuming either an approval or a denial. Illinois's statewide siting law, Public Act 102-1123 (2023), also requires an Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreement, a Vegetative Management Plan, and, where applicable, a Farmland Drainage Plan as part of any wind or solar special-use application -- additional paperwork the county now requires beyond its own local ordinance.

Flooding along the Illinois River and Kickapoo Creek

Peoria County participates in the National Flood Insurance Program, and both the Illinois River and Kickapoo Creek place portions of the county within mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas. The county has recorded flood events in 1979, twice in 1982, again in 1983, in 1995, and in April 2013 -- the last of which reportedly inundated more than 300 properties and caused upwards of $2.5 million in damages. New construction or substantial improvements within a designated regulatory floodway generally aren't permitted, while structures in the broader flood fringe can be built or repaired with a permit from Planning & Zoning. If you're considering a parcel anywhere near the river or a mapped creek corridor, pull the current FEMA flood map for that specific parcel and ask Planning & Zoning directly about floodplain permitting requirements before you buy.

Septic, GIS, and other departments to know

Septic and private well permitting in Peoria County runs through the Peoria City/County Health Department's Environmental Health Division (2116 N. Sheridan Rd., Peoria; (309) 679-6161; EH@peoriacounty.org), which reviews plans and issues permits for both private sewage disposal systems and private wells under the statewide IDPH Title 77 Part 905 framework. Property records for wells and septic systems installed after 2009 are searchable online without a FOIA request.

The Peoria County GIS Zoning Finder provides parcel-level zoning lookups directly, and the county's Comprehensive Land Use Plan guides broader growth and preservation decisions. For deed, easement, and plat records on a specific parcel -- including any recorded solar or wind lease -- check with the County Recorder's office.