The mayor of Lexington is publicly calling for two utility providers in McLean County, Ameren Illinois and Corn Belt Energy, to resolve a dispute over their territories in a planned subdivision in the city.
In an op-ed piece coauthored by Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Spencer Johansen said Ameren is standing in the way of one of Lexington’s most important projects. While Corn Belt has finished its portion, Ameren is requiring the subdivision developer to pay $530,000 to repair transmission lines in its portion of the subdivision.
Carey Davis is the owner of Black Dirt Investments based in Lexington that is building the Century Oaks residential subdivision, a 34-acre site with more than 100 housing units planned on the western edge of Lexington.
“Right now, where it stands is all of the infrastructure is there for what we call Phase 1, which would be all of the senior living and/or apartments, all of the duplexes which there are 15 buildings or 30 places to live and 11 single-family homes in Phase 1,” Davis said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “So, the water, sewer, natural gas, everything is there, the streets are completed.”
The senior living apartments will contain 36 to 48 units. The duplexes will sell for $350,000-450,000 apiece.
After a project that started nearly 3 1/2 years ago, Davis said electrical is the final piece required as construction continues.
“I guess I’m flabbergasted that we’re 90% of the way up the altar and all of a sudden I have a utility that wants a half million dollars from me, and it’s going to shut the whole thing down,” said Davis.
When he bought the property in 2022, Davis said he knew the territories between the two electrical providers overlapped, but he went ahead with setting up infrastructure anyway. He never considered the problem of how arbitrary the lines of the territories were.
“They were formed in [1966] and they don’t follow township lines, property lines. In fact, there’s been two interstates installed in our area, I-39 and I-55, since these lines came out and they’ve never redrawn them,” said Davis.
Davis suspects Ameren was caught by surprise by the speed at which Corn Belt completed its portion. He signed a contract with Corn Belt in June 2024 and the utility's transmission lines were completed in June of this year.
“I understand its somewhat like it was in days of COVID, where you have to order transformers and wire and all the infrastructure quite a ways in advance, which Corn Belt did, but Ameren failed to do,” he said. “I think it’s a matter of that and the cost of getting what they want is three-face power out to all single 40 family homes, which would be their territory.”
Three-face power allows for up to 400 amps of power, said Davis, adding it costs twice as much as standard power.
Davis can recover some of the money spent ordering the materials through what the electrical provider will rebate. He said $65,000 out of the $75,000 he paid to Corn Belt is recoverable through a rebate, but about 20%, or $100,000, is recoverable from what he would give to Ameren from its $533,000 bill.
He is not sure if that price is standard.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever asked these questions before. It certainly seems monopolistic, and where else am I going to go? It’s quite frustrating,” he said.
Davis’ preferred situation would just be to let Corn Belt finish the project since they already are at the table.
When Davis sought help from third parties, like mayor Johansen, they also found it to be frustrating.
Utility companies are allowed to swap territory, but Johansen said they don't want to in this case.
“I guess my concern is the simplest solution to this is for Ameren to concede that territory to Corn Belt, or Ameren absorb a portion of the cost to upgrade — after all they’re the ones that’s going to benefit from this,” said Johansen. “Years ago, [Lexington] wanted this area to grow and we installed water and sewer at our cost, Nicor expanded, Corn Belt expanded and was prepared for the future.”
The City of Lexington spent more than $400,000 in local funds to prepare the site.
“Now it seems like Ameren wants somebody else to pay for their upgrade which frankly should have already been completed,” he said.
Housing demand
Johansen said Lexington is in demand for housing, as is much of McLean County — and the country. He said with as few as one home on the market and no apartments for rent in town, people want to live in Lexington.
In addition to the senior apartments and duplexes, the subdivision will bring 40 single-family homes to the city. The remaining 29 will come in Phase 2 of the project and all will sell between $350,000-$500,000.
He said his op-ed with the governor was to help provide input from his office and the Illinois Commerce Commission [ICC] to handle an unfamiliar issue.
“As a small-town mayor, I don’t know how to handle this, and I think this needs to be addressed moving forward,” Johansen said. “As these communities expand, the ICC needs to look at these boundary lines. After every census we redistrict the political boundaries and maybe we need to put this on the same agenda as that.”
Johansen said the governor’s office has not shown any appetite yet to take on the matter in legislation. Since the office’s involvement, he thinks other municipalities also are struggling with the issue.
"I think we probably brought it to the forefront. I think it’s probably been in the background and a lot of communities really don’t know how to deal with it because we didn’t,” he said. “Every community in McLean County wants to grow, but obstacles like this set us back.”
Johansen said this sort of situation is what can cause a developer to go bankrupt, leaving a developing subdivision to be abandoned.
Davis said if Ameren takes no action, he will develop the portion of the subdivision that does have power and continue to rally support.
"I just am not prepared to write a check that big in order to finish this project," he said.
Ameren’s response
Ron Juarez, Ameren Illinois' director of north electric operations, said the company is required under state law to charge the actual cost for building or extending electric infrastructure, and it protects customers from absorbing unnecessary costs.
“We have engaged in good faith with Lexington officials and the governor’s office, the local co-op and the site developer to meet the power needs of this project,” he said. “We have presented multiple proposals at various costs levels included a least-cost method of phasing in electric service as the lots are sold.”
Johansen agreed Ameren did present multiple proposals.
“But ultimately we have to get power to the rest of that subdivision and that is the $533,000 we’re talking about and, I guess, I would like to see what was offered by Corn Belt,” said Johansen. “I think the answer is an exchange of territories or just conceding that territory and that I think … is the most cost effective.”
Corn Belt Energy did not respond to WGLT's request for comment.
Growth in Lexington
Over the last 30 years, Lexington’s population has grown by 17%, which Johansen attributes to the town’s strong school system.
“I think when people look at where they want to live outside of larger cities the first thing they look at is the school, the second thing they look at is the amenities we offer,” he said. “And we’ve got a fabulous downtown area with retail shops and restaurants, and I think the attraction there to is [being] off of I-55 and Route 66.”
In more rural McLean County, communities are working on broadband internet access. Johansen said homes within city limits are covered, but residents living in the unincorporated portions of the county need better internet access.
“My concern is those people that live three to five miles outside Lexington, and it’s been the same kind of argument … rural McLean County doesn’t mean the Lexingtons, the Chenoas. I think it means those citizens that live in the outskirts that struggle,” he said. “That’s what we need to focus on, but if we continue to see the cuts on these programs, we’re not going to see them, so we have to figure some way at the state level or local level to help pay for them.”
Johansen said many residents have dealt with the problems so long, they've become used to it, but they still are in search of improvement.
