SOUTHLAKE -- 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.
The council has scheduled a hearing on XTO Energy's request to drill up to 18 gas wells on the Milner ranch at 651 Highland St. off Texas 114 and could vote on the permit.City officials have said that that the permit will be approved if a simple majority of the council votes in favor -- four of the seven council members. 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.In this case, just before 1 a.m. Nov. 19, the commission rejected a motion to recommend approval of the permit on a 4-3 vote.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.Commissioner Shahid Shafi, who voted with the majority to deny approval, also wrote that he was surprised and requested that the item be put back on the commission's agenda for a specific recommendation.Commissioner Brigham McCown, who voted to approve the permit, also e-mailed the city to say that he was "shocked" by the opinion.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.The city has debated gas drilling for months. To overcome some city concerns on its two applications, XTO had dropped requests for most variances from the city's drilling ordinance, including restrictions on venting gas at the wellhead. The company had agreed to give the city a list of all chemicals used in fracturing rock for the drilling, though that isn't required by ordinance.On Jan. 18, the council imposed a 180-day moratorium on new applications for drilling and pipelines, so it would have more time to consider revisions to the drilling ordinance. The moratorium doesn't affect existing drilling proposals.Some Southlake residents believe incorrectly that the moratorium means there won't be any drilling this year, said Gordon Aalund, who lives on Chapel Downs Drive, which dead-ends at the south end of the Milner ranch.This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
