After all of the work by community members, the Task Force, The City Council, staff, and others, the draft of the Phase 2 revisions of the Gas Well Ordinance will be released for a 10-day review period.

The City of Denton Gas Well Task Force will be holding a meeting Monday, October 1st at Denton City Hall, Council Chambers at 6:00 PM, 215 E. McKinney, Denton, Texas. There will be a presentation about the draft of the gas well ordinance to be released online on October 2nd.

DRC article: Group to Debut Draft

DAG will be holding a meeting for public comment on October 9th at UNT at 7:00 PM at the Business Leadership Building. See DAG post about the meeting details.

The Denton City Council passed the extension of the Gas Drilling Moratorium. Many people came out to speak and there were protests as well. Please see the Denton Record Chronicle article.

There is concern about the 10-day review period of the upcoming draft ordinance. As it stands now, the public review period will be October 2nd to October 12th!

The ordinance will be posted on the City of Denton website on October 2nd. It will most likely be posted on the Phase 2 amendment section:

1. Please try to attend the Gas Well Task Force meetings on October 1st and October 22nd at 6:00PM at Denton City Hall. It will be very important for large numbers of people to show up and show interest in this topic. I will be seeing the draft for the first time on October 1st and it will be discussed in our meeting prior to the public release on the 2nd.

2. If you want to make written comments, please go to the City’s website and review the draft ordinance.

3. DAG and other organizations and groups will be making official comments as well.

There will also be upcoming P&Z and City Council Meetings, so stay posted.
DAG posted today their viewpoint on the proposed ordinance review process:

How to Black Box a Drilling Ordinance

 

See the City of Denton post about this case.
The question will be if the City Council will approve exceptions to the Moratorium in an amendment to the Moratorium ordinance. As the proposed ordinance is written, it appears that any company with applications for drilling on file would be able to proceed with their applications, and ultimately drilling, even while the Moratorium is in effect.

See agenda backup material.

 

A very important vote is before the Denton City Council on September 11th at 6:30PM.  The company, Eagleridge  is asking for a variance from the gas drilling Moratorium.

This is a very important and precedent-setting case in Denton.

Here are some questions:

How long does a drilling permit last? What constitutes a permit?
What are the limits of municipal police power?
Can these cases wait until the Moratorium has ended and the new gas drilling ordinance is passed?
If operators have previous significant violations, how does this affect decisions to allow them to operate?

If you are free that evening, please show up and voice your concerns about this case.

http://www.cityofdenton.com/index.aspx?page=35&recordid=1604&returnURL=%2findex.aspx

Also, if you cannot show up, please vote on the Engage Denton website.

http://www.engagedenton.com/

The DAG website about this case:

http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2012/09/eagleridge-wants-out-of-moratorium.html