Township Prepares Impact Fee Challenge

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

February 14, 2012 | 12:34 PM

Well, that was fast. Hours after Governor Corbett signed a natural gas drilling impact fee into law, a Washington County township decided to file a legal challenge against the new measure.
The Observer-Reporter has more:

The Robinson Township Board of Supervisors voted Monday night to have its solicitor take action to protect the township’s zoning rights related to House Bill 1950.
The bill passed the House Wednesday and calls for gas extraction companies to pay a fee for drilling in the state, but pre-empts local zoning ordinances that determine where the activity can take place. Under the new law, gas drilling would be permitted in residential areas and setbacks would be less than what many local municipalities now allow.
Township Attorney John Smith, of Smith Butz of Canonsburg, said the township is concerned about its mandate to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. One major provision for that has been local zoning, he said.
“So the question becomes, can they still fulfill their statutorial obligations?” he asked.