Local Officials Slam Impact Fee’s Zoning Restrictions

December 14, 2011 | 2:18 AM

By Scott Detrow

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Town­ship and bor­ough man­agers, coun­cil mem­bers and super­vi­sors are push­ing back against Repub­li­can lead­ers who want to limit local gov­ern­ments’ abil­ity to zone nat­ural gas drilling.

Two impact fees in front of state law­mak­ers would place firm guide­lines on what munic­i­pal­i­ties can and can’t reg­u­late, when it comes to Mar­cel­lus Shale activ­ity. Local offi­cials con­cerned about the mea­sures filled Green Tree, Allegheny County’s munic­i­pal build­ing tonight, and railed against the two impact fees for more than two hours.

Rich Gross­man, a plan­ner in Slip­pery Rock, But­ler County, was one of the first speakers.

Gross­man pointed out that as a uni­ver­sity town, Slip­pery Rock has dealt with its share of zon­ing headaches.  Plan­ners recently issued their first con­di­tional use per­mit to a Mar­cel­lus Shale rig, he said. “And the township’s posi­tion on that is they plan care­fully for where in this unique com­mu­nity the devel­op­ment of oil and gas can occur, just as they plan care­fully in their unique com­mu­nity, where appro­pri­ate places are for fra­ter­nity houses, light and heavy indus­try, and com­mer­cial uses.”

Grossman’s wor­ried the two impact fees would erode local power. “If the state leg­is­la­ture pre­empts the abil­ity of a munic­i­pal­ity to reg­u­late this one indus­try, why not pre­empt the abil­ity to reg­u­late every industry?”

Sup­port­ers of the bills say that’s already the case. Munic­i­pal­i­ties can’t pass their own gun con­trol laws in Penn­syl­va­nia, and local dri­ving reg­u­la­tions are strictly lim­ited. The impact fee’s zon­ing restric­tions are based on the 2005 ACRE law, which bars local gov­ern­ments from zon­ing most agri­cul­tural activ­i­ties. Kathryn Klaber heads the Mar­cel­lus Shale Coali­tion, which rep­re­sents drillers in Pennsylvania.vIn a recent inter­view with StateIm­pact, she said the indus­try needs statewide zon­ing con­sis­tency in order to keep grow­ing. “The clar­ity, what is so impor­tant,” said Klaber, “is that you under­stand what’s com­ing. And com­pa­nies can plan for – and the nat­ural gas indus­try plans for quite a few reg­u­la­tions and requirements.”

Sev­eral of the speak­ers at the meet­ing acknowl­edged the indus­try posi­tion, but coun­tered, that, well, com­mu­ni­ties need clar­ity, too. Peo­ple want to move into a neigh­bor­hood, and know a fac­tory or strip mall won’t be built next door.

Richard Ward, the man­ager of Robin­son Town­ship, Wash­ing­ton County, argued  that con­sis­tency comes from zon­ing. “It allows us to pre­dict how and when and where things are going to hap­pen in our com­mu­ni­ties,” he said. “That, to me, is more impor­tant than bal­anc­ing that against the needs of the indus­try. Not say­ing the needs of the indus­try are not impor­tant, but I believe the needs of the pop­u­la­tion out­weighs that.”

The meet­ing began calm, with Ward and other local offi­cials deliv­er­ing Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tions on leg­isla­tive details. The crowd grew feisty as the evening wore on. Pitts­burgh City Coun­cil­man Doug Shields stirred the pot, rail­ing on big energy com­pa­nies for their large profit mar­gins, and then blast­ing the impact fee’s plan to let the state Attor­ney Gen­eral decide whether local zon­ing mea­sures are rea­son­able. “The Attor­ney General’s going to be the final arbiter of every­thing? When the hell did the attor­ney gen­eral become the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania?”

Sev­eral peo­ple wor­ried the ses­sion was too lit­tle, too late, point­ing the Sen­ate has sched­uled an impact fee vote for today. But the leg­is­la­tion is far from a done deal.

House and Sen­ate lead­ers are still nego­ti­at­ing the final measure’s details. They haven’t agreed on whether a fee would be issued by the county or state, among other issues. Today’s Sen­ate vote is a pro­ce­dural maneu­ver, aimed at mov­ing nego­ti­a­tions to a joint con­fer­ence committee.

Whether the bill passes this week or next year, Wanda God­frey of Mur­rysville, West­more­land County, wor­ried she’s skep­ti­cal local gov­ern­ments can stop it, at this point. “I think what’s going to hap­pen is we’re going to have to do some kind of a law­suit. I think we are going to have to get orga­nized as town­ships,” she said.

They might have a bit more time to orga­nize: the Sen­ate goes home for the year after today, so a final impact fee vote will likely have to wait until 2012.