Scott Must Revote on Marcellus Shale Ordinance

Scott Township commissioners will have to vote again on the they passed last month.

The township submitted the zoning ordinance to the Allegheny County planning agency for review, but did not wait the mandatory 45 days before voting. That means the ordinance is technically voided and will have to be ratified again at the next meeting on June 28.

The commissioners heard about the reasons behind the re-vote during their meeting Tuesday night.

Kay Pierce, manager of the county’s planning division, said her department needed the time to review the ordinance and make comments. She said the number of days was recently increased, catching many municipalities off-guard.

“It was just the timing of the thing,” Pierce said. “It’s in the paper because of Marcellus, but it’s not unusual to have some of this confusion.”

following a brief public hearing in which eight people spoke on the issue.

from residential areas and limits them to industrial and commercial areas zoned C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4 and I. It also requires the drilling operator to notify people living within 1,000 feet of a proposed drill site.