Illinois § 11-12-4

§ 11-12-4.

Every municipality may create a plan commission or a planning department or both. A plan commission shall be appointed by a mayor of a city or president of a village board subject to confirmation by the corporate authorities. Members of the plan commission shall reside within the municipality or within territory contiguous to the municipality and not more than one and one-half miles beyond the corporate limits and not included within any other municipality. A planning department shall be created, organized and staffed in such manner as the municipality may provide by ordinance. The plan commission shall consist of a chairman and members serving for such terms and such compensation, if any, as the corporate authorities of the municipality may prescribe by ordinance. The ordinance may provide that the plan commission shall have a paid secretary or staff or both. Any plan commission or planning department now existing and officially created by ordinance of any municipality may continue to function under the authority of such prior ordinance and any such plan commission or planning department shall have and exercise all the powers conferred by law as fully as if it had been created hereunder. Any municipality which has or shall hereafter create a plan commission or planning department may appropriate from any funds under its control and not otherwise appropriated, such sums as the corporate authorities may deem proper for the maintenance and operation of such plan commission or planning department, including the salaries of all paid members and employees; the development of a planning program; the preparation of regulations, projects and programs pertinent to the development, redevelopment and renewal of the municipality and such surrounding territory over which the municipality exercises subdivision jurisdiction; the preparation and revision of the official map and the exercise of such powers germane to the purposes for which it was created as may be conferred upon the plan commission or planning department by ordinance. Municipalities may accept, receive and expend funds, grants and services from the federal government or its agencies, or from the State of Illinois or its agencies or from private persons or corporations or foundations for planning purposes generally or for planning specific projects. (Source: P.A. 76-601.)