Programming Note: StateImpact On All Things Considered
A programming note: a StateImpact Pennsylvania report on local zoning restrictions within the latest impact fee legislation will air on NPR’s All Things Considered this afternoon. (We’ll post a link once the story goes live on NPR.org.)
Looking for a refresher on how the legislation limits municipalities’ ability to regulate drilling? Here’s our primer on the issue:
The legislation requires municipalities’ ordinances to “provide for the reasonable development of minerals.” What’s reasonable? By and large, that’s for the Attorney General and the Commonwealth Court to decide. But the bills both set parameters local governments would be required to follow.
Municipalities would have to:
- Complete permit reviews within thirty days.
- Allow oil and gas operations and impoundment pools in all zones, including residential.
- Allow compressor stations and natural gas processing plants in agricultural and industrial zones.
- Keep drilling regulations in line with existing construction and industrial zoning. That means a township wouldn’t be able to set one standard for noise emitted by compressor stations, and another for factories within its borders.
The legislation also sets a mandatory 300-foot buffer zone between well pads and residential buildings. Compressor stations would need to be 750 feet from buildings, and could not exceed a sound of 60 decibels at the adjoining property line.