Oxford sets date to vote on fracking moratorium
OXFORD – The Village of Oxford is on the verge of becoming the first municipality in Chenango County to signal its opposition to shale gas development should Gov. Cuomo and the state’s environmental regulators permit drilling and hydraulic fracturing next year.
Trustees will vote on Dec. 11 whether or not to a impose a nine-month moratorium on gas exploration, extraction, and disposal in the village. A meeting to review the Oxford Fire Department’s annual report was previously scheduled on that day, beginning at 7:30 p.m., and now the agenda will include time for this last piece of what has been a push since the spring to update the village’s zoning laws and comprehensive plan with language that addresses the issues surrounding natural gas drilling.
“This buys us some time,” said Mayor Terry Stark on Tuesday during a regular meeting of the board. “We want to put the industry on notice that we are stopping everything relative to gas drilling. We don’t want people making financial decisions about us, like takings and investments.”
At the end of the pause, Stark said the board would vote to either ban drilling in the village entirely, or allow it under special exemption.
A map of wells and spacing units shows three natural gas wells already drilled and capped in the town of Oxford, but none in the village. At least one landowner has leased his property within the village’s borders to Norse Energy for future development. Many acres in the town are leased, and companies’ drilling permits are pending. In addition, Emkey Energy plans to build a pipeline through the town that would eventually transmit gas both north and south through the county to connect to the state’s major pipelines.
The governor and DEC Chief Joe Martens made clear this summer that municipalities’ sentiments about shale drilling would be taken into consideration once permitting begins. Several town boards in the southern part of the county where the Marcellus is thick enough to drill have debated moratoriums, but all have decided to defer to the state’s environmental conservation agency to regulate the industry.
Based on votes taken to this point to draft Oxford’s new law (3 to 2) and to propose it (4 to 1), and considering the mostly pro-moratorium sentiments expressed by residents who attended a public hearing Nov. 13, the village’s new local law seems certain.
At this week’s board meeting, on Tuesday night, business owner Bryant LaTourette said he didn’t think the ordinance was necessary. “Why does the village want it? I see things in the action plan, and I have some concerns that many of them are already contained within the SGEIS (the DEC’s state regs). For example, the county is handling all of the emergency management and security.”
LaTourette also warned the mayor and trustees that moratoriums written by the David Slottje law firm, with whom the village consulted, were all being contested. “As we found out in Binghamton, and will find out in Dryden and Middlefield, it’s illegal,” he said. A moratorium in the City of Binghamton was recently overturned and notices of appeal of the ordinances in Middlefield and Dryden have been filed.
Also at the meeting Tuesday, local golf course owner Willard Bradley questioned why the trustees were using a recommendation from the Oxford Village Planning Board to pursue the moratorium. “Why put a lot of emphasis on what they have to say? They are, collectively, against gas drilling and wouldn’t represent my concerns nor my point of view. I would like to have control over my own future, and not anyone else do it for me.”
Stark said while the planning board recommended drafting a moratorium, the village board might have “done it on our own” because current zoning laws needed to be revisited anyway. He cited municipal level road use and fire protections that, he said, aren’t contained within the SGEIS.
“The crux of the matter is redoing our own zoning laws, not just because of nat gas, but it’s something we have wanted to do for years,” he said. “Folks say our current zoning regs say gas drilling is prohibited, but it doesn’t say that.”
“This keeps the status quo for a period of time,” he said.
Hard copies of the Moratorium and Appendix are available at the Village Hall during normal business hours.
Trustees will vote on Dec. 11 whether or not to a impose a nine-month moratorium on gas exploration, extraction, and disposal in the village. A meeting to review the Oxford Fire Department’s annual report was previously scheduled on that day, beginning at 7:30 p.m., and now the agenda will include time for this last piece of what has been a push since the spring to update the village’s zoning laws and comprehensive plan with language that addresses the issues surrounding natural gas drilling.
“This buys us some time,” said Mayor Terry Stark on Tuesday during a regular meeting of the board. “We want to put the industry on notice that we are stopping everything relative to gas drilling. We don’t want people making financial decisions about us, like takings and investments.”
At the end of the pause, Stark said the board would vote to either ban drilling in the village entirely, or allow it under special exemption.
A map of wells and spacing units shows three natural gas wells already drilled and capped in the town of Oxford, but none in the village. At least one landowner has leased his property within the village’s borders to Norse Energy for future development. Many acres in the town are leased, and companies’ drilling permits are pending. In addition, Emkey Energy plans to build a pipeline through the town that would eventually transmit gas both north and south through the county to connect to the state’s major pipelines.
The governor and DEC Chief Joe Martens made clear this summer that municipalities’ sentiments about shale drilling would be taken into consideration once permitting begins. Several town boards in the southern part of the county where the Marcellus is thick enough to drill have debated moratoriums, but all have decided to defer to the state’s environmental conservation agency to regulate the industry.
Based on votes taken to this point to draft Oxford’s new law (3 to 2) and to propose it (4 to 1), and considering the mostly pro-moratorium sentiments expressed by residents who attended a public hearing Nov. 13, the village’s new local law seems certain.
At this week’s board meeting, on Tuesday night, business owner Bryant LaTourette said he didn’t think the ordinance was necessary. “Why does the village want it? I see things in the action plan, and I have some concerns that many of them are already contained within the SGEIS (the DEC’s state regs). For example, the county is handling all of the emergency management and security.”
LaTourette also warned the mayor and trustees that moratoriums written by the David Slottje law firm, with whom the village consulted, were all being contested. “As we found out in Binghamton, and will find out in Dryden and Middlefield, it’s illegal,” he said. A moratorium in the City of Binghamton was recently overturned and notices of appeal of the ordinances in Middlefield and Dryden have been filed.
Also at the meeting Tuesday, local golf course owner Willard Bradley questioned why the trustees were using a recommendation from the Oxford Village Planning Board to pursue the moratorium. “Why put a lot of emphasis on what they have to say? They are, collectively, against gas drilling and wouldn’t represent my concerns nor my point of view. I would like to have control over my own future, and not anyone else do it for me.”
Stark said while the planning board recommended drafting a moratorium, the village board might have “done it on our own” because current zoning laws needed to be revisited anyway. He cited municipal level road use and fire protections that, he said, aren’t contained within the SGEIS.
“The crux of the matter is redoing our own zoning laws, not just because of nat gas, but it’s something we have wanted to do for years,” he said. “Folks say our current zoning regs say gas drilling is prohibited, but it doesn’t say that.”
“This keeps the status quo for a period of time,” he said.
Hard copies of the Moratorium and Appendix are available at the Village Hall during normal business hours.
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