Mar 28, 2018 2 min read

WEST ALEXANDER – Donegal Township’s planning commission was born May 14, 1998, the same night “Seinfeld” ended and Frank Sinatra died.

The planning commission came to its own end, with much less fanfare, Monday night, when the township’s supervisors voted to abolish it.

The decision to abolish the township’s planning board, decided by a 3-1 vote, is part of a long-running dispute in the township over whether it should adopt zoning. The township board voted last year to put zoning in place, with proponents arguing Donegal needed zoning in order to properly control development, particularly in light of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Opponents of zoning countered that it limited the autonomy of property owners to do as they wished in the largely rural community. Opponents came together under the banner of the Donegal Freedom Group, and four of the five members of the current board hail from that contingent.

“How does (abolishing the planning commission) benefit the safety and welfare of the residents?” asked Doug Teagarden, the sole dissenter, and the only holdover from the previous board. Ed Shingle, chairman of Donegal’s supervisors, explained that supervisors could fill that role, and cited an ordinance the board approved a few minutes before regulating geophysical and seismic testing.

“It can be done by ordinance,” Shingle said.

Kathleen Croft, the board’s fifth supervisor, was absent Monday night.

Until last year, Donegal Township was one of the few communities in Washington without zoning. Last summer, the township approved a zoning ordinance and submitted it to the county. In December, a reworked zoning ordinance had been due to be hashed over in Washington County Common Pleas Court, but a hearing before Judge Damon Faldowski did not take place. Instead, it was agreed the zoning ordinance would go back to the planning commission. Now that the planning commission has been abolished, that review has been effectively shelved.

Whether the original zoning ordinance is still in effect is open to question, but the current board would have the option of simply not enforcing it, Teagarden explained.

“It’s been a really ugly process,” he said.