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Local zoning may provide best controls over Marcellus play, webinar speaker says

Date: 7/9/2010

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- With Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale-gas epoch still in its infancy, some experts doubt we have seen one-tenth of what is yet to come and recommend that municipalities brace themselves for rapid change.

"People who are not in the Marcellus areas have no clue how big this is going to be," said Kurt Hausammann Jr., planning director for Lycoming County. "This has the possibility to change our whole way of life.

"We have a large amount of state land in our county, and probably a third to a half of that is leased," he said. "And then probably about three-fourths of the private land is leased."

Hausammann will be the featured speaker during a free, Web-based seminar titled, "Natural Gas Development Land Use Controls in Lycoming County," which will air at 1 p.m. on July 15. Sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Extension, the "webinar" will provide an overview of land-use planning strategies as shale-gas exploration intensifies across Pennsylvania counties.

Information about how to register for the webinar is available at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/webinars. Online participants will have the opportunity to ask the speakers questions during the session.

Despite potential impacts from gas exploration on local populations, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year ruled that local governments may not enact specific ordinances targeting gas-drilling operations. However, there still may be some avenues to assert some influence, and Hausammann identifies local zoning regulations as the best tools for the job.

To read the entire press release, please click here

To view previously recorded webinars, please click here