Zoning appeal draws crowd
MIDDLESEX TWP — More than 150 residents packed the township fire hall Tuesday night to hear testimony on the possible repeal of an amendment to the zoning ordinance passed in August by the township supervisors.
The zoning board hearing was necessitated by a challenge to the amendment, which determines where gas and oil extraction and processing operations can take place in the township.
Two Philadelphia area environmental groups, plus four township residents, challenged the amendment, which caused shale gas operations to cease at the Denny Road farm of Bob and Kim Geyer.
Five Marcellus shale gas wells are planned for the Geyer farm. The access road and site development of the well pads have been completed by Rex Energy.
A group of Mars School District parents has tried for several months to prevent the Geyer wells because they would be within a mile of the five Mars schools. While the parents say the wells would pose health and safety risks to students and staff, all attempts to prevent them at the local government level have failed.
The Geyers, plus many leaseholders who would profit from the Rex Energy wells at their farm, say residents should have the right to lease their property for shale gas drilling if they so choose.
The challengers to the township's zoning ordinance maintain that unconventional gas drilling in the township's residential-agricultural zone, where the Geyer farm is, should not be allowed.
On Tuesday night, the zoning hearing board heard arguments on both sides of the issue for more than four hours.
Philadelphia environmental attorney Jordan Yeager represented the challengers at the hearing, while township solicitor Michael Hnath and Rex Energy attorney Kevin Colosimo defended the zoning ordinance amendment and the Geyer wells, respectively.
Before any testimony, the zoning hearing board's attorney and the hearing's facilitator, Michael Gallagher, said that each of the three members of the board have leases with shale gas drillers.
Gallagher asked the members, George Born, Howard Morris and Brendan Ryan, whether they could make an unbiased decision regarding the challenge. All three replied that they could.
Yeager said the supervisors violated their obligations by approving the zoning amendment because it is inconsistent with the township's comprehensive plan and the state constitution.Yeager said that for an ordinance amendment to be lawful, it must reflect a balance of community interests and not put one resident's interests before those of another.“You can't enact an ordinance that disrupts that balance,” Yeager said.He said for a zoning ordinance to be constitutional, it must ensure the health, safety and welfare of the community.Yeager said the township's planning code seeks to balance the community by putting compatible uses together and to separate incompatible uses.He said residents have the right to do as they wish with their properties, as long as they don't violate a neighbor's rights.“If you have an ordinance amendment that gets that balance wrong, the courts will strike it down,” Yeager said.He said the amendment violates the state constitution by denying residents' rights to a healthy environment.“This case will demonstrate that by turning 90 percent of the township into area that can be industrialized, this board got the balancing wrong,” Yeager said.Hnath countered that the supervisors, who he said have a combined 150 years of experience in the township, have struck an appropriate balance with the amendment.He said no drilling activities are permitted in the township's two residential zones, and that drilling in the residential-agricultural zone where the Geyer farm is situated still allows farming around the wells.“The ordinance looks at a flexible approach in a transitional area that allows farming and residential development,” Hnath said.He said drilling in three of the township's agricultural districts promotes the objectives in the township's comprehensive plan, which is to preserve prime agricultural land.“Allowing drilling activities may take some acreage out of farming, but it allows farming all around it,” Hnath said.Yeager, Hnath and Colosimo then questioned University of Pennsylvania professor Thomas Daniels, for more than three hours. Daniels teaches city and regional planning.Colosimo's questioning of Daniels revealed that Daniels was paid $175 per hour for his testimony by the Delaware Riverkeeper Association, which is one of the challengers of the ordinance.Yeager also called as a witness a noise expert from a New Jersey firm, who testified that the noise-reduction walls used by Rex Energy would allow excessive noise to come from the Geyer site as the wells were drilled and hydrofractured.The hearing then ended and the board announced that the hearing would be continued at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 29 at the township fire hall.No public comment was taken Tuesday night.Mike Endler, Rex Energy's vice president for the Appalachian Region, said in a statement provided after the hearing that “Rex Energy is committed to conducting our work safely, responsibly and in accordance with all ordinances and regulations. We appreciate the Middlesex Township Zoning Hearing Board's time and welcome the opportunity to represent the interests of Rex leaseholders by taking part in these hearings.”
