Lakeshore Recycling Systems, LLC v. Pollution Control Board

NOTICE 2025 IL App (4th) 241422-U FILED

This Order was filed under

October 21, 2025

Supreme Court Rule 23 and is NO. 4-24-1422

not precedent except in the

Carla Bender

limited circumstances allowed 4th District Appellate

under Rule 23(e)(1). IN THE APPELLATE COURT Court, IL

OF ILLINOIS

FOURTH DISTRICT

LAKESHORE RECYCLING SYSTEMS, LLC, ) Appeal from the

Petitioner-Appellant, ) Pollution Control Board

v. )

POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD, ) PCB 24-065

AMERICAN DISPOSAL SERVICES, INC., d/b/a )

REPUBLIC SERVICES OF BLOOMINGTON, )

McLEAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS and McLEAN )

COUNTY BOARD, )

Respondents-Appellees. )

JUSTICE VANCIL delivered the judgment of the court.

Justices Knecht and Cavanagh concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: The appellate court affirmed the decision of the Illinois Pollution Control Board,

finding that the petitioner failed to send proper notice of its intent to request

approval for siting of a new solid waste transfer facility to all property owners

within 250 feet of the proposed site.

¶2 Petitioner, Lakeshore Recycling Systems, LLC (LRS), sought approval for the

site of a new waste transfer facility in McLean County. The McLean County Board (County

Board) approved the proposed site, but the Pollution Control Board (PCB) vacated that decision,

finding LRS failed to notify all property owners within 250 feet of the lot lines of the proposed

site, as required by section 39.2(b) of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act (IEPA) (415

ILCS 5/39.2(b) (West 2024)). LRS appeals the PCB’s decision, arguing that the PCB

misinterpreted section 39.2(b) and relied on incorrect property boundaries for the proposed

facility.

¶3 We affirm.

¶4 I. BACKGROUND

¶5 LRS is a waste management and recycling company based in Illinois. On August

18, 2023, LRS applied to the McLean County Board for siting approval for its proposed “Henson

Recycling Campus [(Campus)] Transfer Station” (the Facility), in unincorporated McLean

County. It described the proposed station as “a state-of-the-practice facility where loads of

municipal solid waste (MSW) from collection vehicles will be consolidated into larger loads for

transport to a permitted landfill.” The Facility would also consolidate single-stream recyclables

to transport them to material recovery facilities. The application stated, “The proposed

approximately 3.09-acre [Facility] will be located within and complement the existing operations

at the approximately 42-acre [Campus].” The application included a legal description of the

proposed 3.09-acre Facility site.

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¶6 The record includes a real estate impact study, which contained the following

diagram.

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¶7 Respondent, Republic Services, Inc. (Republic), another waste management

company that operates in McLean County, objected to LRS’s application. It claimed that the

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County Board lacked jurisdiction, because LRS failed to serve notice of its intent to submit its

application on the owner of each property within 250 feet of the lot lines of the proposed site, as

required by section 39.2(b) of the IEPA. Specifically, Republic claimed that the relevant lot lines

were the boundaries of the entire 42-acre Campus, not the smaller 3.09-acre area. Republic

contended that a manufactured home community was located within 250 feet of the boundaries

of the Campus and LRS did not notify the owners of this property. Republic claimed that

McLean County’s authentic tax records did not recognize any separate lot that corresponded to

the location of LRS’s proposed 3.09-acre Facility. Instead, Republic claimed that the only legally

recognized lot lines were those of the entire Campus. LRS had not served notice on all property

owners within 250 feet of the boundaries of the Campus, and Republic argued that LRS had

therefore not complied with the notice requirement in section 39.2.

¶8 On February 14, 2024, the McLean County Board approved LRS’s application. It

accepted the “legal description of the Facility set forth in the application.” Based on this

description, the McLean County Board found LRS had complied with section 39.2’s notice

requirements. After finding other statutory requirements satisfied, the County Board approved

the application with certain conditions.

¶9 On March 14, 2024, Republic filed a petition with the PCB for review of the

County Board’s decision, largely repeating the arguments it made before the County Board itself.

The PCB held a hearing on July 29, 2024. Six witnesses testified at the hearing, including the

program administrator for the McLean County recording office, the McLean County treasurer

and county collector, a McLean County Board member, the Geographic Information System

specialist for the McLean County Supervisor of Assessments, a land surveyor, and the Chair of

the McLean County Board.

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¶ 10 The PCB vacated the McLean County Board’s decision. Based on the parties’

filings and the testimony presented at the hearing, it determined that LRS had not complied with

the notice requirement in section 39.2.

¶ 11 The PCB found that the McLean County Zoning Department approved a

preliminary plan to subdivide the original parcel of land, corresponding to the Campus, in

February 2023. The County Recorder of Deeds recorded a new Assessment Plat on August 17,

2023. That same day, the County Supervisor of Assessments received a Parcel Control Change

Request, which is used to record changes in parcels. The request was entered into Devnet, the

county’s system for tracking parcels, on January 18, 2024. On December 18, 2023, the 42-acre

parcel was split apart in the Assessor’s Office records, with the 3.09-acre proposed Facility site

as one of the newly created parcels. Finally, the PCB found that LRS sent notices to nearby

property owners on July 25, 2023, but it did not notify the owners of the manufactured home

community located directly west of the Campus.

¶ 12 The PCB relied on McLean County’s authentic tax records to determine the lot

lines. It concluded that the Campus was the relevant property, the manufactured home park was

within 250 feet of the lot line, and LRS failed to serve notice on the owner of the park. Citing the

plain language of section 39.2(b) and the appellate court’s decision in Environmental Control

Systems, Inc. v. Long, 301 Ill. App. 3d 612, 623 (1998), the PCB found, “an applicant cannot

themselves ‘define’ or decide what the subject property is under Section 39.2(b), and instead

must look to the authentic tax records of the county where the facility is located.” It added that

the Assessment Plat was created after the notice was sent. Similarly, the Parcel Control Request

form was not completed and the parcel change was not mapped in Devnet until after the notice

deadline. Therefore, LRS could not rely on these documents to establish the Facility’s existence

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in the authentic tax records at the time of the notice. Based on the inadequate notice, the PCB

found that the County Board lacked jurisdiction. See Ogle County Board v. Pollution Control

Board, 272 Ill. App. 3d 184 (1995).

¶ 13 This appeal followed.

¶ 14 II. ANALYSIS

¶ 15 LRS appeals the PCB’s decision. We review questions of law, including questions

of statutory interpretation, de novo. Waste Management of Illinois, Inc., v. Illinois Pollution

Control Board, 356 Ill. App. 3d 229, 232 (2005). “[T]he interpretation of a statute by the agency

charged with its administration is generally given deference; but it is not binding and, if

erroneous, will be rejected.” Taddeo v. Board of Trustees of the Illinois Municipal Retirement

Fund, 216 Ill. 2d 590, 595 (2005). When the facts are not in dispute, whether the County Board

had jurisdiction is also a question of law. Waste Management of Illinois, 356 Ill. App. 3d at 232.

¶ 16 Here, the parties do not dispute the PCB’s findings of fact. Specifically, the

parties agree that LRS did not send notice of its application to the owner of the manufactured

home community located to the west of the Campus, and therefore, LRS did not notify the owner

of every property within 250 feet of the 42-acre Campus. However, LRS challenges the PCB

determination that the relevant lot lines were those of the entire Campus, not just the Facility and

LRS’s notices were therefore insufficient.

¶ 17 The PCB relied on section 39.2(b) of the IEPA, which provides;

“(b) No later than 14 days before the date on which the county board or

governing body of the municipality receives a request for site 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

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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.” (Emphasis added.) 415 ILCS 5/39.2(b) (West

2024).

¶ 18 The determinative question is how to ascertain the “lot line of the subject

property.” The PCB concluded that an applicant cannot define the lot lines of the proposed

property itself. Instead, according to the PCB, the boundaries of the subject property are set by

the “authentic tax records of the County in which such facility is to be located.” Id. According to

the PCB, because the proposed 3.09-acre Facility did not exist as a separate lot in McLean

County’s authentic tax records until after LRS sent its notices, the 3.09-acre area could not

define the relevant lot lines. Instead, the county’s authentic tax records acknowledged the entire

Campus as one property, and the Campus provided the relevant lot lines for section 39.2’s notice

requirement.

¶ 19 LRS argues that the PCB erred. The text of section 39.2 specifies only, “[S]aid

owners being such persons or entities which appear from the authentic tax records of the County

in which such facility is to be located.” (Emphasis added.) Id. LRS contends that section 39.2

requires applicants to consult the local authentic tax records to determine only who owns the

neighboring properties, but it does not define the boundaries of the subject property using those

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tax records. Instead, LRS contends that the “subject property” referred to in section 39.2 is “the

property that is the subject of the siting application and for which, if siting is approved, a

development permit will be sought.” (Emphases original.) LRS insists that the applicant defines

this subject property, not any tax records. Here, LRS’s initial application defined the boundaries

of the proposed lot as the 3.09-acre Facility. LRS adds that the Assessment Plat and preliminary

subdivision plan recorded with the McLean County Recorder’s Office also included these

property lines.

¶ 20 LRS contends that the PCB’s reading improperly adds new requirements into the

statute. See U.S. Steel Corp. v. Illinois Pollution Control Board, 384 Ill. App. 3d 457, 463 (2008)

(stating that courts “may not depart from the statute’s plain language by reading into it

exceptions, limitations, or conditions not expressed therein”). The text of section 39.2 does not

state that the authentic tax records must identify the property’s lot lines, nor does it state that

those records must exist before the notice requirement is satisfied. LRS argues we should not add

these requirements to the statute.

¶ 21 Respondents urge us to affirm the PCB’s decision. Republic contends that even if

the text of section 39.2 explicitly refers to authentic tax records only in defining “owners,” we

should read the rest of this section in this context. See People v. Clark, 2019 IL 122891, ¶ 20 (“A

court must view the statute as a whole, construing words and phrases in light of other relevant

statutory provisions and not in isolation.”). The State insists that because the 3.09-acre Facility

did not appear in McLean County’s authentic tax records until after LRS sent its notices, the

property lines of the entire Campus must be the relevant lot lines.

¶ 22 We find the text of section 39.2 ambiguous. Section 39.2 does not define the

phrases “subject property” or “lot line.” As LRS argues, section 39.2 explicitly invokes tax

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records only in reference to the “owners” of the neighboring properties. It does not state

explicitly that the tax records determine the boundaries of the subject property. However, the text

also does not explicitly support LRS’s contention that each applicant defines the boundaries of

the subject property. If the text of section 39.2 does not conclusively resolve this issue in

respondents’ favor, neither does it resolve the issue in LRS’s favor.

¶ 23 In this context, we note that courts afford some deference to an agency’s

interpretations of the statutes it administers. See Taddeo, 216 Ill. 2d at 595. “A significant reason

for this deference is that courts appreciate that agencies can make informed judgments upon the

issues, based upon their experience and expertise. Illinois Consolidated Telephone Co. v. Illinois

Commerce Comm’n, 95 Ill. 2d 142, 153 (1983). Of course, we do not defer to the agency if we

conclude that its decision is erroneous. See Taddeo, 216 Ill. 2d at 595.

¶ 24 We do not conclude that the PCB erred. Section 39.2 does not invoke the

applicant’s definition of the site at all. But its reference to “authentic tax records” provides useful

context for defining the “lot lines.” See Clark, 2019 IL 122891, ¶ 20; see also Lehmann v. Revell,

354 Ill. 262, 276 (1933) (finding no authority that provided a fixed definition for the term “lot,”

and instead, “courts always read and interpret it in connection with the context and the

circumstances under which it is used”). Contrary to LRS’s argument, the PCB’s reading does not

depart from the plain language of the statute by improperly adding new requirements to the

statute. Indeed, section 39.2 creates a notice requirement explicitly. The phrases “lot lines” and

“subject property” must have some definition, and the plain language of the statute is not

conclusive.

¶ 25 The parties also discuss Environmental Control Systems, Inc., 301 Ill. App. 3d

612. There, Environmental Control Systems (ECS) sought to develop a pollution control facility.

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Id. at 614. It did not notify the owners of two properties within 250 feet of the lot on which the

facility would be located. Id. at 622. It argued section 39.2 required only that it notify all the

owners of property within 250 feet of the facility itself. Id. at 623. The appellate court rejected

this claim, observing, “The language of the statute requires notification of owners of land within

250 feet of the lot line.” (Emphasis in original.) Id. at 623 (citing Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 111 ½,

par. 1039.2(b)). The court added that the property’s lot lines were recorded on the county’s

authentic tax records and assessor’s map and the facility was located within one of the parcels.

Id. The court found the phrase “lot line” in section 39.2 referred to the “greater parcel line,” not

the facility boundary, adding, “To conclude otherwise could result in abuse, with property

owners in close proximity to a proposed [facility] not receiving notification because the applicant

owns enough land surrounding the proposed [facility] to negate the 250-foot rule.” Id.

¶ 26 Respondents argue the same reasoning applies here. As in Environmental Control

Systems, LRS’s proposed facility did not exist as a separate lot in the county’s authentic tax

records. Also like the applicant there, LRS improperly tried to measure the relevant boundaries

based on only a small part of the property. Respondents urge us to find that the PCB’s decision

was consistent with Environmental Control Systems.

¶ 27 In attempting to distinguish Environmental Control Systems, LRS quotes the

underlying PCB decision from that case to argue that ECS’s original application defined the

location boundaries using the larger area of the parcel on which the facility was located, instead

of limiting the location boundaries to the facility itself. Indeed, ECS provided no separate legal

description or specified lot lines for the facility itself. See Madison County Conservation

Alliance v. Madison County, 1991 WL 143884, *3, 5 (Apr. 11, 1991) (“The description of the

property, on which the regional pollution control facility will be located, refers to 210 acres.”)

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LRS insists that ECS could not define the lot lines expansively in its application, then define the

lot lines restrictively for purposes of the notice requirement. According to LRS, this case is

distinguishable because it has consistently claimed that the Facility sets the lot line, not the

Campus. Moreover, the Facility has a distinct legal description and lot lines, included in the

assessment plat and preliminary subdivision plan, unlike the proposed location in Madison

County Conservation Alliance.

¶ 28 We do not find LRS’s interpretation of Environmental Control Systems

compelling. Even if the applicant in that case contradicted itself on the boundaries of its

proposed lot, the appellate court in Environmental Control Systems did not rely on this. Instead,

the court’s reasoning related to the applicant’s ability to define the boundaries without relying on

lot lines, and specifically, those lot lines “detailed on the authentic tax records and assessor's

map.” Environmental Control Systems, 301 Ill. App. 3d at 623. Furthermore, LRS does not

appear to claim that either the assessment plat or the preliminary subdivision plan were

“authentic tax records,” so we do not find that these documents establish the boundaries LRS

relies on. See Scott v. City of Chicago, 2015 IL App (1st) 140570, ¶ 12 (explaining that a

county’s “authentic tax records” includes the records of county treasurer, clerk, and assessor).

¶ 29 Moreover, we find Environmental Control Systems’s reasoning compelling. As

the court reasoned, if each applicant could define the boundaries of the subject property without

reference to the authentic tax records, an applicant could avoid the notification requirement if the

proposed facility was located within a lot that surrounded it by at least 250 feet on all sides. See

Environmental Control Systems, 301 Ill. App. 3d at 623. The PCB reasonably did not read

section 39.2 in this way.

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¶ 30 LRS also relies on Wabash & Lawrence County Taxpayers & Water Drinkers

Ass’n v. Pollution Control Board, 198 Ill. App. 3d 388 (1990). There, the applicant sought siting

approval for a new facility on a 45-acre section of a larger parcel of land. Id. at 389. After the

PCB approved the application, the petitioners appealed, arguing the applicant did not comply

with section 39.2. The petitioner claimed that the applicant failed to notify all the heirs of the

previous owner of the neighboring land. Id. at 390-91. The appellate court rejected this

argument. It stated that “[u]nder section 39.2(b), notice is required to be sent to all owners of

property within 250 feet of the property line of the proposed facility.” Id. at 390. But the court

added that section 39.2 defines “owners” based on the authentic tax records. Therefore, any heir

whose name did not appear in the authentic tax records was not entitled to notice. Id. LRS cites

Wabash & Lawrence County Taxpayers to support its argument that “authentic tax records”

define only the owners of the neighboring property, not the lot lines.

¶ 31 Wabash & Lawrence County Taxpayers does not say this. Although the court

there briefly noted that the proposed facility would be located “on a 45-acre portion of a 172-acre

parcel of land,” the boundaries of the subject property were simply not in dispute in that case. Id.

at 389. The petitioner did not claim that the PCB accepted inappropriate boundaries for the

subject property. The court the never discussed whether the proposed 45-acre facility site

appeared in the authentic tax records, nor did it comment on the definition of the “lot lines” or

“subject property.” Instead, the court simply confirmed that the county’s authentic tax records

define the “owners.” Wabash & Lawrence County Taxpayers does not compel a different result

here.

¶ 32 In summary, we find the text of section 39.2 ambiguous. In deference to the

PCB’s reasonable interpretation of the statute and agreeing with the reasoning in Environmental

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Control Systems, we find that section 39.2(b) required LRS to notify the owners of all properties

within 250 feet of the lot lines of the Campus. It failed to do so. Therefore, the County Board

lacked jurisdiction over LRS’s application.

¶ 33 III. CONCLUSION

¶ 34 For the reasons stated, we affirm the PCB’s decision.

¶ 35 Affirmed.

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