Board dismisses zoning challenges
Attorney Dwight Ferguson, standing, spoke on behalf of three Robinson Township families who complained the zoning amendment opened more areas to natural gas drilling.
The three-member zoning board voted unanimously to dismiss challenges to the township’s zoning amendment.
Robinson Township’s zoning board on Tuesday dismissed the challenges lodged by three families who argued a zoning amendment enacted last summer expanded the areas where natural gas drilling could occur at the expense of homeowners.
The three-member board voted unanimously to dismiss both challenges, citing a lack of standing and ripeness, in addition to a provision stating that a second challenge cannot be filed while the first one is pending. The challenges were judged solely on procedural grounds, and the board felt the case was not strong enough to proceed.
Attorney Dwight Ferguson, who represented the challengers, said they will likely appeal the matter to the Washington County Court of Common Pleas.
The three families who filed challenges in September and December were Cathy and Christopher Lodge, Brenda and Nolan Vance, and Irene and Richard Barrie. Ferguson argued the Vances live a quarter of a mile away from a Range Resources well pad called Moore Park that is under construction, but the distance was disputed by two attorneys representing Range and a group of township residents called Robinson Proud. He said two of his clients’ properties were rezoned by the 2014 amendment, and they were concerned about the impact of natural gas development on the value and enjoyment of their homes.
He claimed his clients were never notified that a permit application for the Moore Park well pad had been approved. He said he only discovered it after filing a Right to Know request with the township, which prompted him to file a second challenge. He also accused the township of violating a statute that prohibits the zoning board from issuing permits while challenges are pending. He said the township, as of late December, had issued three zoning permits related to natural gas under the amended ordinance.
“It’s the height of arrogance that the township would go ahead and issue three permits because, in their opinion, they don’t think that the case is ripe or that there’s standing,” he said. “That’s the board’s decision, not the township’s.”
He filed a motion in Washington County court asking a judge “to enforce the Municipalities Planning Code’s mandatory statutory stay on “all municipal action and land development” during a pending challenge.
The motion was denied on Jan. 5 by Judge Gary Gilman, who cited procedural issues with the motion.
Township solicitor Gretchen Moore said a stay could not be enforced because the challengers had no standing.
“This particular provision of an automatic stay shouldn’t even be invoked if you don’t have a challenge where there’s standing and ripeness,” Moore said. “You can’t say we don’t like what’s happening here, period, and halt all the development.”
The three members of the zoning board who voted on the matter were David Sepesy, Mike Donaldson and David Foley. Foley, who had been serving as an alternate, moved up to fill a vacancy left by David Keene, who abruptly resigned Monday before the board of supervisors reorganization meeting.