Kendall County, IL Solar Energy: Panel Permits (2026)

Kendall County Code Section 36-983 requires a County building permit for every private solar energy system, roof-mounted or freestanding, before any work starts under Subsection (j), and Subsection (f) requires administrative plan approval from the County Building Official as part of that permit review. The application has to include horizontal and vertical elevation drawings showing the system's location on the building or property, and for a flat roof it must show the distance to the roof edge, any parapets, and the building's height on the street-frontage side.

A roof-mounted system cannot extend past the building's exterior perimeter or exceed the district's maximum building height under Subsection (a); a freestanding, ground-mounted system is capped at 120 percent of the structure's electrical or thermal load and must meet the same setback rules as the principal structure under Subsection (c), and cannot sit in the front yard of a residentially zoned or used property. Subsection (j) sets a graduated building permit fee schedule under Section 8-46: $150 for systems up to 10 kilowatts, $300 for 11 to 50 kilowatts, $600 for 51 to 100 kilowatts, $1,200 for 101 to 500 kilowatts, $2,750 for 501 to 1,000 kilowatts, and $6,000 for anything over 1,000 kilowatts, plus $200 for each additional 100 kilowatts above 2,000.

Starting construction before the permit is paid for doubles the fee. Both roof-mounted and freestanding systems used for on-site agricultural energy consumption are exempt from the building permit requirement, though every system still has to meet the interconnection rules of the local electric utility.