Indiana Township supervisors deny request that could have led to new gas wells and fracking

Plans for Cranberry-based MPF Management to have a portion of Indiana Township rezoned for potential oil and gas development were put to a halt by township supervisors.

The board voted 4-1 Aug. 14 to deny advertising a public hearing on a request to change a 59-acre parcel along Route 910 from office/commercial to light industrial.

Deputy Mayor Darrin Krally dissented. He participated in the meeting via phone and responded to questions by email the following day.

“I voted to have the public hearing so all residents could have an opportunity to provide input,” Krally said.

“Advertising for public input is a standard process for good to great local government, of which Indiana Township has been for over 20 years now. We were recognized for great government by some of the citizens at last night’s meeting. Hearing this never gets old.”

The township planning commission voted last month to recommend denying the request.

Township Manager Dan Anderson said the public hearing was a step in the legal process to formally bring up the zoning amendment for a vote.

Denying the hearing was a de facto rejection of the request, which came after nearly 20 people spoke against the proposal.

MPF Manager Jon Teacoach, one of five owners, also fielded questions from supervisors before the vote.

“It’s not a drilling company,” Teacoach explained. “We’re a management company. We own oil and gas rights and help other oil and gas rights in many areas. … Our goal would be to get this change and convince a gas company to move forward with (their own) application at some point to develop our rights from this site or from another site in the township.”

Teacoach said the company had an agreement with a supply company to purchase a parcel and had conversations with owners of the former U.S. Pallet Co. site.

After the vote, Teacoach said he would speak with other MPF Management officials to discuss their next steps.

Fox Chapel Area School Board Vice President Ronald Frank and member Ariel Zych were among the speakers against the proposal. Both cited health and safety of students as reasons to deny the request.

Zych, who lives in Fox Chapel, said they came to the township meeting as concerned citizens and not district representatives. Zych was relieved by the supervisors’ decision.

“Fracking should not take place within a mile of any public school,” she said.

Dorseyville Middle School and Hartwood Elementary schools share a campus in the township.

Resident Steve Fine asked attendees if they moved to the township for the quality of life and the schools, and many raised their hands. He also asked if folks moved to the township to have “fracking in 300 feet from their backyards,” and no one raised their hands.

Fine encouraged supervisors to listen to their constituents and not outside companies.

“Those people are not members of the community. We’re the members of this community,” Fine said. “We have a right to clean air. We have a right to not have this (potential gas well) droning and rattling our windows 24 hours a day like that last one you allowed over on Cove Run Road. I lived through it.”

The planning commission’s denial was largely based on MPF Management’s failure to provide geotechnical engineering and feasibility studies on the property, as well as a market study by a broker or appraiser reporting on market trends in the area for commercial uses.

The office/commercial zone is designed to promote professional office centers, restaurants, retail sales and the like.

The aforementioned reports were requested by the planning commission in May.

Attorney Jake Polochak represented MPF Management at that meeting. He said the area selected was more beneficial to the township as compared to a previously considered space at the former U.S. Pallet Co. site. He said the site is farther away from residences and less visible from roadways.

A majority of the 59-acre lot would be donated to the township, and only about 5 to 6 acres would contain the actual operation site, according to the attorney.

Polochak said the original site would have permitted a gas well to be constructed as a conditional use so a rezoning request would not have been required.

Teacoach said at the supervisors’ meeting that the company would have been able to “produce some information related to it” at a public hearing.

Resident Nettie Owens echoed many of the other speakers’ comments about oil and gas wells and said MPF’s failure to comply with the commission’s request also should be a reason supervisors should deny a public hearing.

“These folks turned in ‘F-level’ work, and we’re going to give them more time?” Owens asked.

Supervisors Jonathan Neumann and Sarah Hertweck said the planning commission’s denial and lack of MPF’s report factored into their votes.

“They did not fulfill the burden of proof that is required to rezone a parcel,” Hertweck said. “I was looking for their economic assessment that Indiana Township would benefit from no longer having that office/commercial flex space.

“We just had updated all of our zoning five years ago. If we didn’t want things zoned the way they are zoned, we would have changed that five years ago.”

Other gas matters

Supervisors also discussed the township’s oil and gas ordinance, specifically setbacks of such developments.

Solicitor Irving Firman said the ordinance is very stringent and lists setbacks at 500 feet from a structure and 250 feet from a property line.

He said those restrictions were based on state law, and any increase to those restrictions could be legally challenged.

Firman noted a couple of court cases found 650 and 750 feet restrictions to be “not improper.”

Supervisors talked about the legal process of amending their ordinance and having to go through a public hearing and planning commission and Allegheny County reviews.

Mayor Albert Kaan said he would not be in favor of putting the township in likely expensive court challenges for “a few hundred feet.”

The issue was listed as a discussion item on the Aug. 14 agenda. No formal action was taken.