Plans for a 6,100-acre solar energy complex moved ahead this week with support from construction unions and environmentalists, opposition from people who will have to live close to it and a division on the Will County Board that basically broke down along party lines.

The County Board Executive Committee on Thursday voted 6-5 to advance the plan from Earthrise, already delayed by a month, to the full County Board for a vote on May 21.

The committee vote broke down along party lines with one exception.

Republicans tried to stop or delay the project, and all but one Democratic member of the committee voted to move it ahead.

The 6-5 vote to send the plan to the full County Board included a no vote from board Democratic Leader Sherry Williams of Crest Hill.

Any breaks in party ranks among the County Board, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, could determine the fate of the project next week.

Democrats, some saying their hands are tied by state law, all but eliminated the prospect of local say on solar projects and voted for the plan, with one saying she didn’t like it.

“I have concerns of my own, but the state says I can’t consider those concerns,” Member Kelly Hickey, D-Naperville, said at the Executive Committee meeting.

Contending that there was “some false hope being held out there” in the opposition to the project, Hickey said, “The way I understand this is it’s going to happen, and I’m so sorry about that.”

Hickey joined other Democrats in voting to push the Earthrise project forward.

Opposition was mounted by Republican board members, many of whom represent rural areas where the spread of solar farms has become a big issue.

Board Member Julie Berkowicz, R-Bolingbrook, who represents a largely suburban district, pointed to the example of one Wilton Township resident who said her property would be completely bordered by solar panels under the Earthrise plan.

“It’s such a horrible, horrible thing to happen to anyone,” Berkowicz said.

Earthrise Energy wants to use 96 different parcels in Manhattan, Green Garden and Wilton townships to create its Pride of the Prairie solar energy complex.

“This is a thousand acres around our home,” Laura Heidrich of Wilton Township told the committee while presenting a map showing how the proposed solar complex would surround her property.

For the second time, the Will County Board Planning and Zoning Commission voted on Tuesday to recommend rejecting the project.

The commission voted again after a Will County judge ruled that its first round of public hearings on the project, held March 30 and 31, illegally denied adjoining property owners their right to cross-examine Earthrise representatives on details of their plan.

The commission vote followed a hearing that lasted nearly three hours at the Renaissance Center in Joliet, while attorney Steven Becker, representing adjoining landowners, questioned Earthrise representatives.

Becker made a case contending that Earthrise did not properly account for wetlands on 96 parcels of land it wants to use, provided insufficient information about more than 1 million solar panels it would install, and posed a threat to groundwater with 300,000 galvanized steel posts that would be used in the project.

Arguing that the Earthrise application was incomplete, Becker told the commission, “That gives you a perfect reason to vote no.”

The commission voted no by 4-1.

Earthrise representatives said Becker’s arguments against the application were off-base and issued a statement later saying they were confident the project would be approved by the Will County Board.

Becker said his clients will continue to fight the Earthrise project in court if the County Board approves it.