Cedar Hill starts work on gas drilling measure

by Steve Snyder of of TODAY Newspapers

Natural gas drilling is inexorably marching east from Tarrant County in the direction of Cedar Hill.

So, the city is wrestling with what sort of ordinance it wants to draft to implement municipal controls on drilling.

At a Cedar Hill City Council briefing session Oct. 14, City Planner Rod Tyler gave an overview of the city's options.

Per a similar ordinance in Fort Worth, the city could allow three types of gas wells - rural, urban and high impact. The three types differ in the strictness of their regulation, the closeness to protected sites such as residential areas, and the number of hurdles Chesapeake or another gas company would have to clear to get approval for drilling the particular well in question.

Chesapeake looked at ordinances in Mansfield, Southlake, Burleson and Llano as well as Fort Worth, saw what it best liked and submitted two proposals for Cedar Hill to draft a similar ordinance.

“I live on the west side of town and I know there's a lot of difference of opinion on this issue,” Councilman Greg Patton said. He added that people seemed to have two concerns - how much money they might get and how much they might be affected.

Tyler said he saw the city as having three options on how to proceed from this point.

One was to adopt wholesale, with minor tweaking, another city's ordinance. The second was to hold city council workshops. And the third was to name a study committee of residents.

Patton said he favored this, a sentiment favored by the rest of the council.

“I intend to get Lake Ridge and High Pointe involved - the two most impacted areas,” Mayor Rob Franke said.

The Cedar Hill Code of Ordinances, Chapter 13 on Natural Resources, adopted in 1984, specifically addresses the extraction of natural resources. The ordinance allows oil and gas drilling in property districts zoned C - Commercial, I - Industrial or IP - Industrial Park. However the ordinance prohibits drilling sites on any property zoned for residential use or within 500 feet of any residential or multi-family structure in any zone. Chapter 15, on parks and recreation, prohibits drilling for gas in city parks.

The Cedar Hill zoning code also contains standards that regulate where drilling sites may be located and how they are to be operated. The code requires the city council to issue a conditional use permit before drilling can start. As the city's website notes, this allows the council to set specific standards and requirements aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of drilling and operating a gas well.

Tyler then briefed the council on progress on the city updating its comprehensive development plan.

A residents' group appointed by the city worked on making changes and upgrades to the city's current comprehensive plan, as guided by Dan Sefko from city engineering consultant Freese and Nichols.

Their work was completed early this summer and officially accepted by the city council. From there, it went to the Cedar Hill Planning and Zoning Commission.

Councilman Cliff Shaw noted that most of the three pages of changes made by the commission were minor, and that he was ready to take up the plan for consideration as soon as possible.

That said, the planned route for Loop 9, a proposed beltway around the south side of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, has been set for some time. The loop's proposed route, narrowed down to a specific area, will go through part of southern Cedar Hill.

“Seventeen people spoke in opposition (at the Planning and Zoning Commission), and almost all spoke about Loop 9,” Tyler said.

The council drew questions about the loop at a public presentation of the residents' committee's work, held in June. But, Franke noted the city has little leeway.

“(Loop 9's) route has been chosen for a long time, and it's really not our say so,” he said.

He added that, due to federal law, the Texas Department of Transportation was unable to hold any public hearing on Loop 9 at this time, because an environmental impact statement about the loop was under review.

More information about the history of Loop 9 is available online; the city of Cedar Hill's website, www.cedarhilltx. com, has a link to Loop 9 information from the Texas Department of Transportation.