McCandless updates zoning law to limit location of fracking wells, reduce drilling nuisances

There aren’t any applications in the pipeline from drillers who want to extract natural gas from deep underground in McCandless.

But if such an application is filed in the future, drillers will be limited to a few select spots in the town and must adhere to strict rules to prevent noise and other disturbances.

Council on Monday unanimously approved an update of its zoning ordinance that regulates oil and gas development to ensure that to the extent possible, drilling won’t occur near residential and commercial properties. Additional information about the ordinance can be viewed online.

While municipalities can’t ban drilling — or any other legal business activity — they can limit where it is done and how much the operations affect surrounding properties.

The updated ordinance only allows oil and gas drilling in Institutional Districts, which are scattered around the town, said planning director R.J. Susko.

One of the town’s largest Institutional Districts is the area surrounding the McCandless Crossing shopping center and La Roche University.

Also included in the Institutional District is land owned by the North Allegheny School District and recreation areas, including North Park.

Council president Kim Zachary said the revised ordinance helps “protect the land, the air, the water and the citizens.”

But she acknowledged that the question of whether drillers might be allowed in North Park “is probably the only thing I see that people are unhappy with.”

“Nobody wants to see fracking wells in our parks,” she said. “We value our green spaces and our parks.”

Zachary said the town contacted the county, which owns North Park, to determine if there are any immediate plans to drill there.

“The county responded saying ‘we are not considering it (drilling) and wouldn’t consider it,’” Zachary said.

To address the possibility that drilling might occur in North Park in the future, the town is considering updating its zoning ordinances to remove parks from the Institutional District, the council president said.

“I think this ordinance gives us a little bit of time to revamp our zoning to do that,” Zachary said.

Susko said none of the land owned by the town meets the criteria for drilling.

In addition to setting limits on the amount of noise a well site can produce as well as hours of operation and other safety measures that must be in place, the revised ordinance requires well pads to be at least 250 feet from an adjacent property line and at least 1,000 feet from a residential or commercial building.

Prior to the vote, Councilman David Smith said that without the changes “there’s nothing that address this (oil and gas drilling) right now.”

“There is really no way to ban a use,” he said. “What this ordinance is doing is being proactive and putting in some protections that don’t exist now.”

McCandless resident Mary Ann Love urged council to adopt the measure.

“A lot of people spent a lot of time (creating) safeguards with this ordinance,” she said. “And it’s very important that these safeguards pass. The ordinance is not perfect, unfortunately, nothing in life is perfect.”

Love said she would have preferred to see drilling limited to a single area zoned for industrial use, but acknowledged that the available land in that district would be too small for drilling operations.