There is hereby created a Plan Commission for the City of Hometown, Illinois, which Commission shall consist of seven members to be appointed by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the City Council, in the same manner as other officers of the City are appointed and subject to the provisions of this article and all articles relating to appointments of officers of the City. With the advice and consent of the City Council, and until this article is otherwise amended, the Mayor hereby appoints the members of the Zoning Board of Appeals as members of the Plan Commission, the terms to run concurrently therewith, and the Chairman to be the same Chairman.
The Plan Commission shall have a Secretary and such other employees as shall be deemed necessary for the use of this program. However, no Secretary or employee shall be employed without the consent of the City Council.
The compensation of the members of the Plan Commission, the Secretary, the staff or the employees shall be fixed by the City Council in the annual appropriation ordinance.
The Plan Commission shall have powers and duties as follows:
(A) 
To prepare and recommend to the corporate authorities a Comprehensive Plan for the present and future development or redevelopment of the City. Such plan may be adopted in whole or separate geographical or functional parts, each of which, when adopted, shall be the official Comprehensive Plan, or part thereof, of the City. This plan may include reasonable requirements with reference to streets, alleys, public grounds, and other improvements hereinafter specified. The plan, as recommended by the Plan Commission and as thereafter adopted in any municipality in this state, may be made applicable, by the terms thereof, to land situated within the corporate limits and contiguous territory not more than 1 1/2 miles beyond the corporate limits and not included in any municipality. Such plan:
(1) 
May be implemented by ordinance establishing reasonable standards of design for subdivision and for resubdivision of unimproved land and of areas subject to redevelopment in respect to public improvements as herein defined;
(2) 
May be implemented by ordinance establishing reasonable requirements governing the location, width, course, and surfacing of public streets and highways, alleys, ways for public service facilities, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, streetlights, parks, playgrounds, school grounds, size of lots to be used for residential purposes, stormwater drainage, water supply and distribution, sanitary sewers, and sewage collection and treatment; and
(3) 
May designate land suitable for annexation to the municipality and the recommended zoning classification for such land upon annexation.
(B) 
To recommend changes, from time to time, in the official Comprehensive Plan.
(C) 
To prepare and recommend to the corporate authorities, from time to time, plans for specific improvements in pursuance of the official Comprehensive Plan.
(D) 
To give aid to the City officials charged with the direction of projects for improvements embraced within the official plan, to further the making of these projects, and, generally, to promote the realization of the official Comprehensive Plan.
(E) 
To provide for development of a planning program; the preparation of regulations, projects and programs pertinent to the development, redevelopment and renewal of the City and such surrounding territory over which the City exercises subdivision jurisdiction; and the preparation and revision of the Official Map.
(F) 
To exercise such other powers as are germane to the powers granted by the statutes of the State of Illinois to Plan Commissions.
(G) 
To initiate and review applications for projects to be financed in whole or in part by state or federal grants. No application shall be approved which is not consistent with the overall Comprehensive Plan of the City.
A majority of the Plan Commission shall constitute a quorum, but no final action shall be taken on any measure before it except with the concurrence of a majority of the members. The Chairman shall vote with the other members of the Commission.
The Plan Commission shall meet at such times as it may determine. Special meetings may be called by the Mayor, the Chairman, or by any two members of the Commission; provided, however, that such notice must be in writing. If all the members are present at a special meeting, written notice thereof shall be deemed waived. However, no meeting, special or otherwise, shall be held without posting the notices and notifying the news media, as required by statute.