Public Act 90-0409 of the 90th General Assembly
Public Act 90-0409
SB475 Enrolled LRB9001062DPmgB
AN ACT to amend the Environmental Protection Act by
changing Section 39.2.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Environmental Protection Act is amended
by changing Section 39.2 as follows:
(415 ILCS 5/39.2) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 1039.2)
Sec. 39.2. Local siting review.
(a) The county board of the county or the governing body
of the municipality, as determined by paragraph (c) of
Section 39 of this Act, shall approve or disapprove the
request for local siting approval for each pollution control
facility which is subject to such review. An applicant for
local siting approval shall submit sufficient details
describing the proposed facility to demonstrate compliance,
and local siting approval shall be granted only if the
proposed facility meets the following criteria:
(i) the facility is necessary to accommodate the
waste needs of the area it is intended to serve;
(ii) the facility is so designed, located and
proposed to be operated that the public health, safety
and welfare will be protected;
(iii) the facility is located so as to minimize
incompatibility with the character of the surrounding
area and to minimize the effect on the value of the
surrounding property;
(iv) the facility is located outside the boundary
of the 100 year flood plain or the site is flood-proofed;
(v) the plan of operations for the facility is
designed to minimize the danger to the surrounding area
from fire, spills, or other operational accidents;
(vi) the traffic patterns to or from the facility
are so designed as to minimize the impact on existing
traffic flows;
(vii) if the facility will be treating, storing or
disposing of hazardous waste, an emergency response plan
exists for the facility which includes notification,
containment and evacuation procedures to be used in case
of an accidental release;
(viii) if the facility is to be located in a county
where the county board has adopted a solid waste
management plan consistent with the planning requirements
of the Local Solid Waste Disposal Act or the Solid Waste
Planning and Recycling Act, the facility is consistent
with that plan; and
(ix) if the facility will be located within a
regulated recharge area, any applicable requirements
specified by the Board for such areas have been met.
The county board or the governing body of the
municipality may also consider as evidence the previous
operating experience and past record of convictions or
admissions of violations of the applicant (and any subsidiary
or parent corporation) in the field of solid waste management
when considering criteria (ii) and (v) under this Section.
(b) No later than 14 days prior to a request for
location approval the applicant shall cause written notice of
such request to be served either in person or by registered
mail, return receipt requested, on the owners of all property
within the subject area not solely owned by the applicant,
and on the owners of all property within 250 feet in each
direction of the lot line of the subject property, said
owners being such persons or entities which appear from the
authentic tax records of the County in which such facility is
to be located; provided, that the number of all feet occupied
by all public roads, streets, alleys and other public ways
shall be excluded in computing the 250 feet requirement;
provided further, that in no event shall this requirement
exceed 400 feet, including public streets, alleys and other
public ways.
Such written notice shall also be served upon members of
the General Assembly from the legislative district in which
the proposed facility is located and shall be published in a
newspaper of general circulation published in the county in
which the site is located.
Such notice shall state the name and address of the
applicant, the location of the proposed site, the nature and
size of the development, the nature of the activity proposed,
the probable life of the proposed activity, the date when the
request for site approval will be submitted, and a
description of the right of persons to comment on such
request as hereafter provided.
(c) An applicant shall file a copy of its request with
the county board of the county or the governing body of the
municipality in which the proposed site is located. The
request shall include (i) the substance of the applicant's
proposal and (ii) all documents, if any, submitted as of that
date to the Agency pertaining to the proposed facility,
except trade secrets as determined under Section 7.1 of this
Act. All such documents or other materials on file with the
county board or governing body of the municipality shall be
made available for public inspection at the office of the
county board or the governing body of the municipality and
may be copied upon payment of the actual cost of
reproduction.
Any person may file written comment with the county board
or governing body of the municipality concerning the
appropriateness of the proposed site for its intended
purpose. The county board or governing body of the
municipality shall consider any comment received or
postmarked not later than 30 days after the date of the last
public hearing.
(d) At least one public hearing is to be held by the
county board or governing body of the municipality no sooner
than 90 days but no later than 120 days from receipt of the
request for site approval, such hearing to be preceded by
published notice in a newspaper of general circulation
published in the county of the proposed site, and notice by
certified mail to all members of the General Assembly from
the district in which the proposed site is located, to the
governing authority of every municipality contiguous to the
proposed site or contiguous to the municipality in which the
proposed site is to be located, and to the Agency. The public
hearing shall develop a record sufficient to form the basis
of appeal of the decision in accordance with Section 40.1 of
this Act. The fact that a member of the county board or
governing body of the municipality has publicly expressed an
opinion on an issue related to a site review proceeding shall
not preclude the member from taking part in the proceeding
and voting on the issue.
(e) Decisions of the county board or governing body of
the municipality are to be in writing, specifying the reasons
for the decision, such reasons to be in conformance with
subsection (a) of this Section. In granting approval for a
site the county board or governing body of the municipality
may impose such conditions as may be reasonable and necessary
to accomplish the purposes of this Section and as are not
inconsistent with regulations promulgated by the Board. Such
decision shall be available for public inspection at the
office of the county board or governing body of the
municipality and may be copied upon payment of the actual
cost of reproduction. If there is no final action by the
county board or governing body of the municipality within 180
days after the filing of the request for site approval the
applicant may deem the request approved.
At any time prior to completion by the applicant of the
presentation of the applicant's factual evidence and an
opportunity for cross-questioning by the county board or
governing body of the municipality and any participants, the
applicant may file not more than one amended application upon
payment of additional fees pursuant to subsection (k); in
which case the time limitation for final action set forth in
this subsection (e) shall be extended for an additional
period of 90 days.
If, prior to making a final local siting decision, a
county board or governing body of a municipality has
negotiated and entered into a host agreement with the local
siting applicant, the terms and conditions of the host
agreement, whether written or oral, shall be disclosed and
made a part of the hearing record for that local siting
proceeding. In the case of an oral agreement, the disclosure
shall be made in the form of a written summary jointly
prepared and submitted by the county board or governing body
of the municipality and the siting applicant and shall
describe the terms and conditions of the oral agreement.
(f) A local siting approval granted under this Section
shall expire at the end of 2 calendar years from the date
upon which it was granted, unless the local siting approval
granted under this Section is for a sanitary landfill
operation, in which case the approval shall expire at the end
of 3 calendar years from the date upon which it was granted,
and unless within that period the applicant has made
application to the Agency for a permit to develop the site.
In the event that the local siting decision has been
appealed, such expiration period shall be deemed to begin on
the date upon which the appeal process is concluded.
Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, upon the
expiration of a development permit under subsection (k) of
Section 39, any associated local siting approval granted for
the facility under this Section shall also expire.
If a first development permit for a municipal waste
incineration facility expires under subsection (k) of Section
39 after September 30, 1989 due to circumstances beyond the
control of the applicant, any associated local siting
approval granted for the facility under this Section may be
used to fulfill the local siting approval requirement upon
application for a second development permit for the same
site, provided that the proposal in the new application is
materially the same, with respect to the criteria in
subsection (a) of this Section, as the proposal that received
the original siting approval, and application for the second
development permit is made before January 1, 1990.
(g) The siting approval procedures, criteria and appeal
procedures provided for in this Act for new pollution control
facilities shall be the exclusive siting procedures and rules
and appeal procedures for facilities subject to such
procedures. Local zoning or other local land use requirements
shall not be applicable to such siting decisions.
(h) Nothing in this Section shall apply to any existing
or new pollution control facility located within the
corporate limits of a municipality with a population of over
1,000,000.
(i) The Department shall make a study of technical
considerations relating to the siting of new pollution
control facilities. Such study shall include, but need not be
limited to, a determination of the geologic and hydrologic
conditions in the State most suitable for the siting of such
facilities, the establishment of a data base on such
conditions in Illinois, and recommendations for the
establishment of technical guidelines and criteria to be used
in making such siting decisions. The Department shall report
such study and recommendations to the General Assembly, the
Governor, the Board and the public no later than October 1,
1984.
The Board shall adopt regulations establishing the
geologic and hydrologic siting criteria necessary to protect
usable groundwater resources which are to be followed by the
Agency in its review of permit applications for new pollution
control facilities. Such regulations, insofar as they apply
to new pollution control facilities authorized to store,
treat or dispose of any hazardous waste, shall be at least as
stringent as the requirements of the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act and any State or federal regulations adopted
pursuant thereto.
(j) Any new pollution control facility which has never
obtained local siting approval under the provisions of this
Section shall be required to obtain such approval after a
final decision on an appeal of a permit denial.
(k) A county board or governing body of a municipality
may charge applicants for siting review under this Section a
reasonable fee to cover the reasonable and necessary costs
incurred by such county or municipality in the siting review
process.
(l) The governing Authority as determined by subsection
(c) of Section 39 of this Act may request the Department of
Transportation to perform traffic impact studies of proposed
or potential locations for required pollution control
facilities.
(m) An applicant may not file a request for local siting
approval which is substantially the same as a request which
was disapproved pursuant to a finding against the applicant
under any of criteria (i) through (ix) of subsection (a) of
this Section within the preceding 2 years.
(n) In any review proceeding of a decision of the county
board or governing body of a municipality made pursuant to
the local siting review process, the petitioner in the review
proceeding shall pay to the county or municipality the cost
of preparing and certifying the record of proceedings.
Should the petitioner in the review proceeding fail to make
payment, the provisions of Section 3-109 of the Code of Civil
Procedure shall apply.
In the event the petitioner is a citizens' group that
participated in the siting proceeding and is so located as to
be affected by the proposed facility, such petitioner shall
be exempt from paying the costs of preparing and certifying
the record.
(o) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section,
a transfer station used exclusively for landscape waste,
where landscape waste is held no longer than 24 hours from
the time it was received, is not subject to the requirements
of local siting approval under this Section, but is subject
only to local zoning approval.
(Source: P.A. 88-557, eff. 7-27-94; 88-681, eff. 12-22-94;
89-102, eff. 7-7-95; 89-200, eff. 1-1-96; 89-626, eff.
8-9-96.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.