Equity Solar Illinois v. County of Grundy

Plaintiffs filed a mandamus action after the defendant county rejected the plaintiffs’ request for special use permits to build commercial solar energy facilities. The circuit court granted the mandamus and entered an order directing the county to issue the permits and the county appealed. The appellate court affirmed, finding that amendments to section 5-12020 of the Counties Code demonstrated a clear legislative intent to substantially restrict the county’s traditional and discretionary regulatory land-use powers in the context of commercial solar energy facilities and that the circuit court properly found that the county was statutorily obligated to issue the requested special use permits. (HOLDRIDGE and BERTANI, concurring)