[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Westville as Ch. 4 of the 2015 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A Plan Commission is hereby created under authority of 65 ILCS 5/11-12-4 through 5/11-12-12.
The Plan Commission shall consist of seven members; said members to be residents of the Village, appointed by the Mayor and the Village Board, on the basis of their particular fitness for their duty on the Plan Commission and subject to the approval of the Village Board.
The members shall serve for a period of five years. Vacancies shall be filled by appointment for the unexpired term only. All members of the Commission shall serve without compensation; except that if the Board deems it advisable, they may receive such compensation as provided by the Village Board by appropriation.
The Plan Commission shall elect such officers as it may deem necessary and adopt rules and regulations of organization and procedure consistent with the Village Code and state law. The Commission shall keep written records of its proceedings. It shall be open at all times for and to the inspection of the public, and the Commission shall file an annual report with the Mayor and Village Board, setting forth its transactions and recommendations.
The Plan Commission shall have the following powers and duties:
A. 
To prepare and recommend to the Village Board a Comprehensive Plan for the present and future development or redevelopment of the Village and contiguous unincorporated territory not more than 1 1/2 miles beyond the corporate limits of the Village and not included in any other municipality.
(1) 
Such plan may be adopted in whole or in separate geographical or functional parts, each of which, when adopted, shall be the official Comprehensive Plan or part thereof of the Village. Such plan shall be advisory, except as to such part thereof as has been implemented by ordinances duly enacted by the Village Board.
(2) 
All requirements for public hearing, filing of notice of adoption with the County Recorder of Deeds, and filing of the plan and ordinances with the Village Clerk shall be complied with as provided for by law. To provide for the health, safety, comfort, and convenience of the inhabitants of the Village and contiguous territory, such plan or plans shall establish reasonable standards of design for subdivisions and for resubdivisions of unimproved land and of areas subject to redevelopment in respect to public improvements as herein defined and shall establish 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. The requirements specified herein shall become regulatory only when adopted by law.
B. 
To designate land suitable for annexation to the Village and the recommended zoning classification for such land upon annexation.
C. 
To recommend to the Village Board, from time to time, such changes in the Comprehensive Plan or any part thereof as may be deemed necessary.
D. 
To prepare and recommend to the Village Board, from time to time, plans and/or recommendations for specific improvements in pursuance of the official Comprehensive Plan.
E. 
To give aid to the officials of the Village charged with the direction of projects for improvements embraced within the official plan or parts thereof, to further the making of such improvements and, generally, to promote the realization of the official Comprehensive Plan.
F. 
To arrange and conduct any form of publicity relative to its activities for the general purpose of public understanding.
G. 
To cooperate with municipal or regional plan commissions and other agencies or groups to further the local plan program and to assure harmonious and integrated planning for the area, subject to approval of the Village Board.
H. 
To exercise such other powers germane to the powers granted under authority of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, as may be conferred by the Village Board.
At any time or times before or after the formal adoption of the official Comprehensive Plan by the corporate authorities, an Official Map may be designated by ordinance, which may consist of the whole area included within the official Comprehensive Plan or one or more geographical or functional parts and may include all or any part of the contiguous unincorporated area within 1 1/2 miles from the corporate limits of the Village. All requirements for public hearing, filing notice of adoption with the County Recorder of Deeds and filing of the plan and ordinances, including the Official Map, with the Clerk shall be complied with as provided for by law. No map or plat of any subdivision or resubdivision presented for record affecting land within the corporate limits of the Village or within contiguous territory which is not more than 1 1/2 miles beyond the corporate limits shall be entitled to record or shall be valid unless the subdivision shown thereon provides for standards of design and standards governing streets, alleys, public ways, ways for public service facilities, streetlights, public grounds, size of lots to be used for residential purposes, and distribution, sanitary sewers, and sewage collection and treatment in conformity with the applicable requirements of the Code, including the Official Map. (See 65 ILCS 5/11-12-12.)
The Village Clerk shall furnish the Plan Commission, for its consideration, a copy of all ordinances, plans and data relative to public improvements of any nature. The Plan Commission may report in relation thereto, if it deems a report necessary or advisable, for the consideration of the Village Board.
The Commission shall recommend the boundaries of districts for land use and shall recommend regulations to the corporate authorities for the following:
A. 
To regulate and limit the height and bulk of buildings hereafter to be erected.
B. 
To establish, regulate and limit the building or setback lines on or along the street, traffic way, drive, parkway, or stormwater or floodwater runoff channel or basin.
C. 
To regulate and limit the intensity of the use of lot areas and to regulate and determine the area of open spaces, within and surrounding such buildings.
D. 
To classify, regulate and restrict the location of trades and industries and the location of buildings designed for specified industrial, business, residential, and other uses.
E. 
To divide the entire municipality into districts of such number, shape, area, and of such different classes (according to use of land and buildings, height, and bulk of buildings, intensity of the use of lot area, area of open spaces, or other classification) as may be deemed best suited to carry out the purpose of this section.
F. 
To fix standards to which buildings or structures therein shall conform.
G. 
To prohibit uses, buildings, or structures incompatible with the character of such districts.
H. 
To prevent additions to and alteration or remodeling of existing buildings or structures in such a way as to avoid the restrictions and limitations lawfully imposed under this section.
Expenditures of the Commission shall be at the discretion of the Village Board; and if the Commission shall deem it advisable to secure technical advice or services, it shall be done upon authority of the Village Board and appropriations by the Village Board therefor. (See 65 ILCS 5/11-12.)