DALLAS TWP. — A proposed comprehensive zoning map that would restrict oil and gas industry usage from 75 to 10 percent of the township was approved by the Dallas Township Zoning Committee Tuesday.
The proposed zoning map contains two new districts to meet the changing needs of the municipality, Planning Consultant Jack Varaly said.
“I think we have come up with, in the past seven to eight months, a very just approach in terms of bringing it up to date to reflect uses that exist and potential usages that could come into the township,” Varaly said.
When the Marcellus Shale Gas industry moved into the region in 2008, the state had full control over the industry, Varaly said.
“Municipalities had little direct input or control over it,” he said. “At that time, A1 districts (Agricultural Districts) were the primary district that oil and gas ancillary facilities were permitted throughout the township under the existing map that took up about 75 percent of the township.”
Varaly recommended redefining the permitted uses for an A-1 district, which is an Agricultural District and add an A-2 or Rural Agricultural District.
The proposed zoning change would restrict areas the oil and gas industry could use for ancillary facilities, which includes compressor stations, metering stations, processing facilities, hydraulic fracturing water withdrawal and treatment services to A-2 districts as uses permitted by special exceptions, he said.
A new proposed Institutional District will allow Misericordia University, Dallas School District, Ecumenical Enterprises Inc, and the new planned substance rehabilitation center, which will be located in the former Wyoming Valley Health Care System off Upper Demunds Road, as uses permitted by special exception, Varaly said.
The last time the township’s zoning map was fully updated was in 1965, Township Supervisor and Zoning Committee member Elizabeth Martin said.
“We can’t prevent growth, but we can control it and that is what we are trying to do,” said attorney Donald Karpowich, an advisor to the Zoning Committee.
The proposed comprehensive zoning map will be presented to the township’s Planning Commission at 7 p.m. July 11. If approved, the supervisors will review and voted on the proposal at the Aug. 1 meeting.
