Buying Land in Washington County, Illinois

Zoning: a countywide ordinance run out of the old jail building

Washington County's zoning authority runs through a Revised Zoning Ordinance, administered by the county's Zoning Administrator (Krystal Althoff, as of this research pass), based at 125 W. St. Louis Street in Nashville -- notably, the county's former jail building. A 7-member Zoning Board of Appeals, with representation from all 3 County Board districts, handles variances and appeals. As with every Illinois county, this zoning authority under 55 ILCS 5 Division 5-12 covers only unincorporated territory; incorporated municipalities elsewhere in the county administer their own separate zoning inside their corporate limits.

Washington County has 16 townships. Because the county has adopted countywide zoning, Article 110 township zoning does not independently apply in any Washington County township -- the county's own ordinance, not a township-level code, is what governs a specific unincorporated parcel. One historical note tied to the county's townships: DuBois Township was home to a coal mine that opened in 1865 and closed in 1965, described by the county's own history materials as the oldest mine in Illinois -- a fitting bit of context for a county that remains a real coal-producing area today.

The Prairie State Energy Campus: a coal plant that mines its own fuel next door

Washington County is home to the Prairie State Energy Campus, a mine-mouth coal-fired power plant reported at roughly $4.93 billion in construction cost, with Unit 1 coming online in June 2012 and Unit 2 in November 2012, together rated at approximately 1,600 MW. What sets it apart is that the plant burns coal produced by its own adjacent underground mine -- the Lively Grove Mine, extracting from the Herrin No. 6 coal seam via the room-and-pillar method, at a rate reported around 7 million tons per year -- with both the plant and the mine sitting on a shared site of roughly 1,200 acres about 50 miles southeast of St. Louis.

The plant is owned by nine public power agencies serving 277 municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives across eight states, rather than by a single private utility -- an unusual ownership structure for a project this large. None of this creates a special zoning designation or land-use restriction for a buyer looking at land elsewhere in the county, but the plant and mine represent a genuinely large, long-term fixture of Washington County's economy and tax base, and it's worth understanding if you're evaluating land near the Lively Grove area specifically.

Newer ground: solar farms and battery storage

Beyond its coal-power history, Washington County has adopted its own Commercial Solar Farm Ordinance and, more recently, a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Ordinance dated September 29, 2025. As in every Illinois county, these local rules operate underneath a statewide ceiling: Public Act 102-1123 (signed January 27, 2023) amended 55 ILCS 5/5-12020 of the Counties Code to set siting standards for commercial wind and solar that a county's own ordinance cannot exceed in restrictiveness, and it bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development. Because Washington County's BESS ordinance is quite recent, confirm current, specific setback and siting requirements directly with the Zoning Administrator before relying on any particular figure for a parcel near a proposed project.

Septic, wells, and other departments to know

Septic and water-well permitting in Washington County runs through the Washington County Health Department (177 South Washington Street, Nashville; (618) 327-3644), whose Environmental Services division lists food safety, private sewage disposal, and potable water supply among its responsibilities -- all falling under the statewide IDPH Title 77 Part 905 framework for private sewage systems. After-hours emergencies route through the Washington County Sheriff.

The Supervisor of Assessments handles property valuation and assessment records, and the County Clerk and Recorder's office (101 East St. Louis Street, Nashville) holds deeds, easements, and plats -- worth checking directly for any recorded solar-lease or BESS-related easement affecting a specific parcel given the county's recent BESS ordinance. Confirm current staff, fees, and hours directly with each office before relying on this page for a specific transaction.