Talk:List of Illinois townships

Williamson County
It looks like Williamson County, Illinois has precincts not townships per Name Index to Illinois Local Governments and Williamson County Fact Sheet says township government was discontinued in 1932. I'm guessing its listed here because the US census calls them townships in the factfinder. Anyone object to moving them to the List of precincts in Illinois? --Dual Freq 19:02, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Counties with precincts map
The Illinois map is showing only 16 of the 17 counties with precincts (indicated in blue). Randolph County should also be indicated with blue on the map. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.223.239.237 (talk) 16:41, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

Counties
It seems to me that the county name needs to be included in the article link. I realize there is a separate list of townships by county, but if one is looking at this list and looking for a township by name, it would be helpful if the name of the parent county appeared in the link too, especially since there is some name duplication among townships. I can add these pretty easily. Omnedon (talk) 23:20, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Makes no sense.
I know that the person who wrote this:

''Of the 102 counties in the state of Illinois, 87 are divided into the 1,433 townships listed below, plus the City of Chicago. The remaining 15 counties are divided into 261 precincts.''

understood what they meant, but I don't think most readers, unfamiliar with Illinois government structures, will. The problem is the clause "plus the City of Chicago". What does that mean? Does it mean that Chicago is divided into townships? Actually, if read literally, it says that the 87 counties are divided into 1434 units, 1433 of which are townships, and 1 of which is the City of Chicago. Can this be fixed by someone who understands completely the unique status of Cook County in relation to the other counties? HuskyHuskie (talk) 03:38, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
 * The Cook County, Illinois article, and the township map contained therein, indicate that Chicago itself is not associated with any active townships. If so, then perhaps the mention of Chicago is irrelevant in this article. Omnedon (talk) 03:48, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I think I've got it straightened up now. Let me know whether it is clear or is confusing, okay? HuskyHuskie (talk) 06:24, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I find these parts confusing.
 * Also, there seems to be a disagreement between this article:
 * Of the 102 counties...of Illinois, 84 are organized into civil townships, usually referred to as simply "townships" in state law. All told, Illinois has 1,428 such townships
 * and the article List of precincts in Illinois:
 * Of the 102 counties in...Illinois, 17 are divided into minor civil divisions known as precincts....The remaining 85 counties are divided into 1,433 townships.
 * Thatsme314 (talk) 03:48, 21 January 2024 (UTC)
 * It seems like the number of townships is out-of-date on one (and appears that one county no longer has any), and that seems to be the only problem. Someone could simply look up the correct number and change it. Criticalthinker (talk) 07:30, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

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Coterminous Townships
I had a question for coterminous townships. The article seems to mention that Granite City Township isn't coterminous, but I found this 1993 court case which seems to say it is (for certain purposes)?

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/591486bcadd7b049344da532

Since this was an appellate decision, how was this case ultimately decided? In any case, if the borders are not coterminous, is there anywhere where it can be found into how many townships Granite City extends into (it appears it's larger than Granite City Township), and if any cities extend into Granite City Township aside from Granite City? Granite City's own website does not show a map of the city boundaries overlayed on the township's boundaries, and the townships website is practically useless; I can find this nowhere. --Criticalthinker (talk) 15:12, 8 August 2019 (UTC)


 * After reading it through three or four times, I'm a bit more clear about this. In fact, this case rules that Granite City is not actually coterminous with Granite City Township after its annexations, but that it fuctionally remains coterminous.  It's something of a mixed signal.  But most importantly is what it means to be a coterminous township, and on that I'm a bit less clear.  What I'm most clear on is that functional coterminous status allows Granite City and Granite City Township to merge certain elected and appointed offices which duplicate one another (not sure if they ever have done this) even after the two are no longer actually coterminous.  What is less clear to me is what coterminous status means as it relates to Granite City and Granite City Township's ability to annex, which is something brought up in the ruling.  There seems to be some difference in the mechanisms of annexation between coterminous townships/cities and non-conterimonous townships/cities, but I can't tell what those are.  Can anyone make sense of that near the end of the ruling?  BTW, using TIGERweb (https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerweb/), I've been able to find that Granite City covers all of Granite City Township, but also extends into parts Chouteau, Venice, and Nameoki townships.  Weirdly, there appears to be "island" exclaves of townships in each surrounding township. --Criticalthinker (talk) 09:39, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Okay, I read Nameoki Twp. v. Granite City Twp., again. Actual physically conterminous municipalities are given slightly expanded powers by empowering them to unilaterally detach-and-annex adjacent township lands within a certain threshold. Specifically, an actual physically conterminous municipality can detach-and-annex adjacent township land according to 60 ILCS 1/15-25:

"Within any 12 month period beginning on the date of a coterminous city's first annexation after August 11, 1986, when any parcel of territory lying in an adjacent township is annexed by the city and the parcel constitutes less than 1% of the total equalized assessed value of the adjacent township, and until all such parcels annexed during each such annual period constitute 1% or more of the total equalized assessed value of the adjacent township, each separate parcel shall become disconnected from that township and included in the coterminous township without having the proposition to disconnect submitted to the voters in the adjacent township."

The ruling of the court said that functionally conterminous city-townships can not use this option of annexation, and can only use normal annexation procedures as is codified in Article 7 of the Illinois Municipal Code. Apparently, Granite City City-Township, which ceased being physically conterminous, was using this particular method to unilaterally annex small pieces of land and detach them from the adjacent townships and add them to Granite City Township. I will rewrite the section on coterminous townships, here, to add a bit more detail about what it means, but will try to keep it short. --Criticalthinker (talk) 09:24, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

Evanston Township
Seems to be missing from the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evanston_Township,_Cook_County,_Illinois 38.32.141.154 (talk) 20:41, 14 December 2023 (UTC)