CRANBERRY TWP — Township supervisors Thursday evening unanimously rejected a proposed amendment to its oil and gas operations ordinance that would have brought its regulations into compliance with Act 13 regulations.

In light of the recent state appellate court ruling striking down Act 13 as unconstitutional, the board’s rejection vote means the current ordinance will remain in effect pending a final ruling by the state’s Supreme Court.

The current ordinance makes natural gas drilling a conditional use, which enables Cranberry to place additional conditions on the activity, such as landscape buffers to neighboring properties.

Drilling is only permitted in commercially zoned areas, including transitional light industrial, planned industrial/commercial, light industrial and special use. Those areas are clustered mostly around the major highways of Routes 19 and 228.

A Pennsylvania appellate court panel on July 26 struck down provisions in a new law regulating the state’s natural gas industry that opponents to the provisions said would have left municipalities defenseless to protect homeowners, parks and schools from being surrounded by drilling sites or waste pits.

The decision was a defeat for Gov. Tom Corbett and the natural gas industry, which had sought the municipal limitations.

Cranberry Township manager Jerry Andree said when the ruling was first announced said, “The ordinance currently in force in Cranberry Township was in compliance with the previous laws of the Commonwealth. Our ordinance was being considered for amendment due to the requirements set forth in Act 13.

“The township solicitor will continue to review the current ordinance in light of this recent Commonwealth Court decision.”

He added, “The township is pleased the court has restored the right of local governments to manage their land use according to existing laws.”

That ruling has been appealed to the state Supreme Court as state officials have asked for a speedy review of the case.

The state Commonwealth Court ruled last month that the limitations in the so-called Act 13 violated the state constitution.

The opinion’s author, President Judge Dan Pellegrini, said the provisions upended the municipal zoning rules that had previously been followed by other property owners, thus unfairly exposing them to harm.

Seven municipalities had sued over the sweeping, 5-month-old law, saying it unconstitutionally takes away the power to control property from towns and landowners for the benefit of the oil and gas industry.

Among the most objectionable provisions cited by the towns were requirements that drilling, waste pits and pipelines be allowed in every zoning district, including residential districts, as long as certain buffers are observed.

The natural gas industry, which has invested billions of dollars in Pennsylvania since 2008 to take advantage of the Marcellus Shale formation, the nation’s largest-known natural gas reservoir, had sought even stronger limitations than the ones in the new law.

The companies are not used to navigating such local rules in other states where they drill, and some companies complained that municipalities, had tried to use zoning rules to effectively ban drilling.