Southlake says...

Wait a darn minute.

Too bad other communities weren't willing to do the same (Fort Worth).

Read the article concerning the City Council gas drilling vote in the Colleyville Courier.

Southlake's current ordinance has a 1,000-foot setback, but some drilling opponents want a 1,500- foot setback like in Flower Mound. They also want a 25-percent limit on variance requests. For example, in Flower Mound, the closest a gas well can be to a home is 1,125 feet, 25 percent of 1,500 feet.

Drilling supporters say that would prevent drilling at all potential sites in Southlake. Earlier this year, XTO Energy requested variances to the city's current 1,000-foot setback because both its proposed drill sites were close to homes or businesses. The energy company withdrew both requests after one was rejected by the council and another was challenged by a lawsuit.

Did YOU vote yet?

YOU better.  Otherwise, same ol...you know.

DO something, otherwise, keep your mouth shut. 

WHO are we voting for?  You can see our pics here.

Early voting ends today at 7.  Election day is Saturday!

Southlake and Haltom City

What's the difference?  Too many to list, however this week we noticed a glaring one.

Both Southlake and Haltom City's Planning and Zoning boards voted down drilling sites, forcing a council super majority vote to pass.

Will give you one guess which council did so without any hesitation.

Read about one the other one in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Southlake scared

Of being sued.  They should be scared about their future.  Will the $25,000 be enough to supply them air and water? 

Read about the residents protesting gas drilling in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Kotter thinks that XTO Energy's two proposed drilling sites will reduce property values and the quality of life that drew families to Southlake. She also has health and safety concerns because one drill site is about 3,000 feet from Old Union Elementary School.

Mark Kotter said he doesn't understand how Southlake could chase away Wal-Mart and Twin Peaks but allow gas drilling.

But denying all drilling could put the city at risk for a multi-million dollar lawsuit, city attorney Allen Taylor said at a meeting.

In Texas, the mineral estate trumps the surface owners' rights because urban drilling was inconceivable when the law was written, Taylor explained.

The city could end up having to prove in court why the drill site was denied, Taylor said.

"It's extremely difficult and it's extremely risky," he said.

So is gambling with the health and safety of residents.

Mark Southlake off the list...

XTO will be drilling there next.

It was a good thing while it lasted.  Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Some of you property owners might want to check the pipeline route, "outside deisignated utility corridors" sometimes means your front yard.  Someone email us when your water rates increase again. 

"I would like us to consider continuous monitoring for at least a year," Muller said. "I want to be assured that it's tested on a continuous basis."

Dueease said safeguards at the drill site mean the 24-hour testing would "literally serve no purpose."

But that didn’t persuade the council.

"This would prove to all the residents that what you’re saying is true," Zito said.

Bringing thousands of gallons of water to the drill site posed another problem, as city leaders don't want hundreds of tanker trucks traveling to the drill site but they are reluctant to sell city water when there's peak demand in the summer.

Instead, a compromise was reached where XTO Energy will be allowed to purchase city water from Oct. 15 to May 1 and then use trucks for the rest of the year.

The permit also included a proposed pipeline route that will carry the natural gas from the drill site to market. The route runs parallel to Texas 114.

Two variances to the city’s pipeline ordinance were approved 6-1 with Zito voting no. The variances allow the pipeline company, Energy Transfer, to work on the pipeline 24 hours a day and place the pipeline in areas outside designated utility corridors.

Kudos

to Southlake Planning and Zoning Commission for looking out for their residents.  Not just the residents with gas leases.  Maybe you could teach some other P & Z Boards a thing or two.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Pleas from residents who don't want a 16-inch natural gas pipeline near their Southlake homes paid off early Friday.

Heavy snow was falling just after midnight when the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-1 to deny XTO Energy's request to drill on Texas 26 near Brumlow Avenue.

Southlake resident Molly Bullard said the line would devalue "million-dollar homes" and would kill the trees that define Johnson Road.

John McFadden said he's concerned because his son's bedroom "would literally be within putting distance from this pipeline."

Commissioner Joe Lancor said he was concerned that XTO didn't have waivers from one of the Southlake homes within 1,000 feet of the drill site.

What the Hell?

Southlake Planning and Zoning Commission is asking just that.  Read about the latest gas drilling bait and switch drama playing out there in the Southlake Journal.  And be there Tuesday for the City Council vote, it could be fun.

The City Council could vote Tuesday on whether to authorize the city's first gas wells, despite objections from some Planning and Zoning Commission members who voted against the application.

But some residents, including planning and zoning commissioners, say the city is ignoring the will of the commission by not requiring a supermajority vote, or six of the seven council members. Typically, when the commission denies a request, a supermajority is required for approval.

A city attorney's ruling later that day said that because the commission didn't follow up that vote with a recommendation to deny the permit, XTO Energy could proceed to the council without a commission recommendation. Attorney Tim Sralla advised City Manager Shana Yelverton that a supermajority would not be needed.

That surprised many commissioners, who said their intent was to deny the application, according to e-mails obtained through the Public Information Act by residents who live near the drilling site in the Chapel Downs subdivision. One of the residents forwarded the e-mails to the Star-Telegram.

Commissioner Jim Hamel, in a Nov. 20 e-mail to city officials, said Sralla's opinion is "incorrect on several fronts." He also wrote that he and other commissioners were never told that a specific motion to deny was needed. "If we needed a separate denial to make a legally operative recommendation, it seems to me that should have been made clear to us long before now," Hamel wrote, calling Sralla's conclusion "simply absurd." Last week, Hamel said he stands by those statements.

However, Ken Baker, the city's planning director, told Yelverton in a text message that he believed that Sralla's opinion was factual. "I cannot read the commissioners' minds and thus do not know of their intentions," he wrote.

Bet he can read their minds now...

Southlake 180 day moratorium on gas drilling

Read about it in the Southlake Journal.

If you were moving to Tarrant County, WHERE would you choose to live?  Somewhere that rubber stamps drilling, or somewhere that looks at the consequences?

City administrators had proposed a 90-day moratorium, but Mayor John Terrell and other council members doubled that.

XTO's request to drill up to 18 wells has been tabled three times, once by the zoning commission and twice by the council.

In Keller, XTO has requested that the City Council delay until Feb. 15 a decision on the Sky Creek Ranch drill site, which is within 1,000 feet of 18 Southlake homes. The Keller Planning and Zoning Commission recommended Jan. 10 that the council deny the request to drill up to 12 wells there.

Pick one

And go!

Tonight gas drilling on the agenda in Fort Worth, Arlington and Southlake City Council meetings.

Where do YOU live?  Be there!