On
September 14, 2015, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court reversed a lower
court’s decision denying natural gas well operations within the residential
areas of Fairfield Township, Lycoming County.
In 2013,
Inflection Energy filed a conditional use permit application to drill and
operate an unconventional well within a Residential Agriculture District in
Fairfield Township, Lycoming County. Despite concerns from some area residents
that such project would affect their quality of life and property values, the
Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township approved the conditional use application.
The landowners filed an appeal of the Board’s decision before the Court of
Common Pleas of Lycoming County.
The landowners
disputed the interpretation of conditional uses within the Residential
Agriculture District in the Fairfield Township Zoning Ordinance of 2007. Their
main claim was that the Board failed to establish that developing
unconventional wells was not compatible with residential development. On August
29, 2014, the Court of Common Pleas ruled in favor of landowners holding that
the Board’s decision “is vacated, set aside and reversed.”
The
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court reversed the Court of Common Pleas’ decision
and concluded that unconventional gas development was appropriate within the Residential
Agricultural District because such development was similar to public service
facilities and that landowners did not prove that it would alter their quality
of life and property values.
Further
information on the case can be found at
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
09/17/2015
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