The lawsuit against residents who challenged a Middlesex Township zoning amendment that allows shale gas drilling in most of the township has been dismissed.

However, Butler County Judge Marilyn Horan left an opening for the plaintiffs to file a revised complaint to more directly link the defendants to alleged income lost by the plaintiffs.

Horan said Ronald Amrhein, the attorney for the group of lease holders who filed the suit, has 20 days to file an amended suit.

That lack of a direct link was one of two reasons Horan cited for dismissing the suit. The other reason was that the allegations were not specific enough.

Horan’s ruling on Tuesday came after a Sept. 17 hearing when Witold Walczak, the ACLU legal director, argued that the action constituted a SLAPP suit, meaning a suit meant to deprive the challengers of their constitutional right to protest a government action.

The leaseholders who brought the suit claimed that the challengers meant to delay the Bob and Kim Geyer wells on Denny Road and in turn deprive the lease holders of their right to earn money from their properties.

The challenge to the zoning amendment was argued over several hearing sessions that began in November 2014. The Clean Air Council, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, plus township residents David Denk, Jennifer Chomicki, Anthony Lapina and Joann Groman were the official challengers of the zoning amendment, and were the defendants in the SLAPP suit.

The leaseholders who brought the suit against the challengers are Dewey Homes and Investments, Mark Vinson, Joseph Elm, Mark Gissendaner, Bradley Kress, Brian Kress, Albert and Charlotte McKee, Ronald Molinaro, Jean Utz, Matthew Vinson, and Dean and Sharon Weigle.