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Updated: April 23, 2026 @ 12:36 am
McCall
McCall
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GIBSON CITY — Gibson City Planning Commission members voted 6-1 to recommend the city council deny a developer’s petition for a special-use permit for the construction and operation of a proposed 2.25-megawatt solar farm on farmland just northeast of the city.
The commission’s recommendation will be considered by the city council during its May 11 meeting.
Of the 16 members of the public present in the council chambers for the commission’s meeting, an estimated 10 addressed the appointed panel — all speaking out against the project.
“I’m assuming that the same folks who were there and voiced some concerns will be there (again) on May 11,” said the commission’s chairman, Chase McCall. “The developers who gave their presentation will also be there again.”
The developer, San Francisco-based ForeFront Power, was represented at the meeting by its director of development, Jason Grissom. Also present were Larry Crews of Champaign, who owns the involved farmland at Ford County Road 600 East and Illinois 54 in Drummer Township, and Matthew Vollbrecht, the wetland manager/environmental lead for Westwood Professional Services, an architecture and engineering firm.
Most were in opposition, though, including Bob Buhs, who lives across the road from the proposed site, and other neighboring landowners like Brandon Roderick, Lori and Kevin Buhs, and Kaitlyn and Nick Brucker.
Also, there were several other “concerned citizens,” as listed on the meeting’s visitor sign-in sheet, including Tom Dueringer, Sharon Stroh, Ruth Davis, Janet Iverson, Ryan Iverson and Pat Farris, plus resident Rob Schmitt.
“We heard issues from residents about the proximity of the solar farm to a couple of residences in the country — I think the nearest one was 350 feet from the solar farm,” McCall said. “We heard issues or complaints or concerns about glare from the solar farm. We heard issues about alleged toxicity of the solar panels, you know, for groundwater. Those are just some of the bigger complaints that, I think, the members of the planning commission took into consideration with their vote.”
Among the seven commissioners present, McCall was the only one to vote in favor of the issuance of the permit for the project, which would be built on a 23.42-acre triangular parcel of land to the southeast of Illinois 54. Voting to not recommend approval were Commissioners Mike Allen, Kevin Askew, Donna Boundy, Chris Cornish, Terry Hutchcraft and Mike Perkins. Commissioners David Crow and Betsy Hammitt were absent.
McCall said he voted to recommend approval because of the project’s potential benefits to the community, including the temporary stimulation of the economy through the creation of jobs, an increase in tax revenue from the involved land for local taxing bodies, and the possibility that the city’s residents could apply to receive energy credits on their utility bills via an agreement with Ameren Illinois.
“I personally thought — in this world of an increased cost of living, where utility bills are ever-increasing with the global macroeconomics of the world — that anything we can do to help out our residents in that regard is beneficial,” McCall said. “So that was one of the reasons I voted to recommend it.”
McCall said history was also a factor in his decision, noting that the city had previously approved a permit for a similar-sized solar farm built a couple of years ago behind the Harvest Moon Drive-In near the city’s south side.
“I know each situation is different, and this one can be a little tricky with proximity to residences, but again, I just felt the overall benefit to the community sort of outweighed those issues for me, personally,” McCall said. “From a planning commissioner’s perspective, I have to think about what’s in the best interest for Gibson City.”
The city has zoning authority within 1.5 miles of its corporate limits.
According to its website, ForeFront Power is a developer of commercial and industrial-scale solar-energy and battery-storage projects. It is a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and operates under Mitsui’s North American investment arm, MyPower Corp.
McCall
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