Penn Township drafting zoning amendment to address natural gas, power uses
PENN TWP — The township is looking to draft a curative amendment to address gaps in its zoning ordinance regarding oil and gas-related uses, as well as power and energy generation and battery energy storage systems.
The township is turning to local engineering firm Herbert Rowland & Grubic to assist in drafting the curative amendment. HRG previously assisted Penn Township in drafting its comprehensive plan update in 2024.
The timing of the action comes as Penn Township is weighing approval of the construction of a proposed natural gas compressor station for MarkWest, which would be built along Royal Oak Road. The compressor station proposal, which first came up at a planning commission meeting in October, has received pushback from Penn Township residents and was tabled by the commission for further consideration.
According to township solicitor Anthony Cosgrove, the need for a curative amendment was discovered as a result of a comment from the attorney of a Penn Township resident at the previous board of supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
The attorney mentioned to the board that, due to the wording of the township’s zoning ordinance, the compressor station is technically not a permitted use anywhere in the township.
“He made a suggestion that the ordinance was invalid. I went back into our records and realized that he was correct,” Cosgrove said. “We recognize that there's a deficiency... in that there's no regulations currently governing natural gas, battery energy systems and power generation uses.”
Throughout the past few months, multiple municipalities in Butler County have made use of the “curative amendment” process to amend their zoning ordinances to adopt new regulations on the development of data centers.
While Penn Township did implement a data center ordinance earlier this year, it did not go through the curative amendment process to do so.
“We didn't do it with data centers because we passed our ordinance already on that,” Cosgrove said. “There's no regulations permitting natural gas, battery energy storage systems and power generation facilities and so that's why we've evoked the curative amendment now.”
Despite the setback, the compressor station is still the subject of a public hearing before the planning commission next Tuesday, Nov. 17, and — if applicable — the board of supervisors the following Tuesday.
“Under (the zoning ordinance), natural gas is not a permitted use on the property that they've applied for, so they will have to come present prepared to present on that fact and go from there,” Cosgrove said.
