An advisory panel to the Will County Board on Tuesday voted against plans for a 6,100-acre solar project.

The vote does not stop the project, which next goes to a county board committee on Thursday for review.

But the negative recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission was a morale boost for dozens of residents and township officials who spoke against the project.

“I’m not anti-green,” Wilton Township Highway Commissioner Ray Nugent Jr. told the commission. “I’m against the way this is being shoved down our throats by the state of Illinois.”

His comment was one of many during two nights of a public hearing that started Monday objecting to a state law aimed at encouraging development of solar power while restricting local control.

The commission’s 4-2 vote, however, advises against giving Earthrise the special use permit that the county would require for the solar complex to be built.

The full county board will have the final vote on the project.

The solar complex woiuld be scattered on 96 different farm properties in an area southeast of the village of Manhattan and spreading into Manhattan, Green Garden and Wilton townships.

Officials and residents from all three townships spoke against the project at the public hearing.

But it also got substantial backing from building trades unions, solar advocates, and farmers.

Earthrise would primarily lease land from farmers for the solar project, which would generate 600 construction jobs if it is built, according to the company.

“This is not about politics,” Joe Sweeney said, speaking on behalf of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. “It’s about using all the tools in our toolbox to the meet the rising demand for energy.”

The Pride of the Prairie project is just one of two large solar project Earthrise plans for Will County farm land.

The company also wants to build what it calls Plum Valley Solar, a solar complex that would cover 2,400 acres in Crete, Monee, Will, and Washington townships.

The Planning and Zoning Commission after a separate public hearing earlier in March recommended approval of the Plum Valley Solar plan.

The County Board Land Use and Development Committee will review both Earthrise projects when it meets at 11 a.m. Thursday.

The meeting is likely to bring out many of the speakers for and against the projects.

The County Board committee meeting, like the planning and zoning hearing, is being moved to the Renaissance Center to accommodate what is expected to be a large public showing.

The Renaissance Center has a banquet hall, which accommodated what appeared to be about 300 people on Monday. It is located at 214 N. Ottawa St. in downtown Joliet.

.