FORT WORTH -- The sheep look wary of visitors at Mary Kelleher's little 12-acre farm off of Randol Mill Road in east Fort Worth.
Kelleher and her neighbors are suspicious these days, too. A natural gas well sits to one side of her spread, a metering station to the other. Across the way: a gas company's access road that Kelleher says has worsened floods on her property when it rains.Down the road, homeowners have successfully fought off two attempts by the owner of 42 acres that wants it rezoned agricultural, which would allow a gas compressor station. Kelleher, who has a gas lease, organized nearly 60 of her neighbors three weeks ago to speak at a City Council meeting -- or voice their concerns on cards -- about the potential for more gas facilities on agriculturally zoned property in the bucolic area east of Loop 820 and north of Interstate 30.The city appears to be moving in their direction. The staff, at the request of Councilman Danny Scarth and Mayor Betsy Price, is writing a proposed change to the gas drilling and zoning ordinances."We haven't decided yet, but we'll probably make it a 'special exception,'" meaning gas companies would be required to get permission from the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment to build a compressor station in agricultural zoning, said Randle Harwood, the city's planning and development director.If permission is denied there, a gas company's only recourse would be through the courts.Such an ordinance change would effectively push compressor stations out of agriculturally zoned areas near neighborhoods, Harwood said. Such pockets exist in east Fort Worth and the far west side.The zoning board, if presented a case for a special exception, "would review it in the context of how is it impacting the other uses" close by."Not a lot of people want to go to the Zoning Board of Adjustment," Harwood said. "The first instinct of the gas companies is going to be to look for someplace where it is allowed."An ordinance change would go through the Zoning Commission and have to be approved by the City Council, and include public hearings. Harwood said the staff will likely brief the council Jan. 8."I think that's probably a workable solution," Scarth said of a special exception. "I don't want to remove compressor stations from agricultural zoning entirely. "I think there are cases where there are hundreds of acres on the edge of town, sparsely populated, where that may be exactly where we want them to be."In areas such as the east-side neighborhoods, "you kind of need to protect both sets of landowners," he said. "I think that's a good compromise."Seeking a voiceCompressor stations are placed at intervals along pipelines to ensure gas remains at a high pressure and move it along. The east-side homeowners have voiced concerns about pollution, noise, appearance, and safety.Homeowners on the east side have sought a ban on compressor stations in agricultural zoning, but appear to be satisfied by the idea of a special exception."We would love a ban, but we would be very pleased if they did that [a special exception requirement], and did that yesterday," said Kelleher, who has dogs, horses, cattle, pigs, fowl, a donkey and a llama.Jackie Barnd, a director and treasurer of the Mallard Cove association, a 200-home neighborhood near the 42-acre site, said she would support the special exception requirement."All we want is a voice," she said."I understand, and we all understand where the Barnett [Shale] is," Bob Horton, president of the Historic Randol's Mill Valley Alliance of East Side neighborhoods, said."They can't just decide to drill elsewhere. This is where the gas is," he said. "If we all want to keep driving our cars instead of public transportation, there's a toll to be paid. But we really resist the idea that they should be able to willy-nilly pursue the gas."Julie Wilson, vice president of urban development with Chesapeake Energy in Fort Worth, questioned the implementation of a special exception requirement.Blocking compressor stations where they're needed likely means more pipeline and higher horsepower elsewhere in the system, she said."It might be pushing a lot more pipeline onto other neighborhoods that might not want it there," she said.Less compression means more wells might not be drilled, she said. "Neighbors could be the ones losing out," she said.Homeowners who have signed gas leases should be willing to accept some inconveniences, she said. And regarding environmental questions, she said, the industry has "compressor stations in ag zones operating very efficiently and very quietly without any problems whatsoever."A special exception would be unfair to property owners interested in that use, she said.She also questioned a process that allows recourse only through the courts if the Zoning Board of Adjustment denies a special exception."It seems like you would want to keep this all within the council," she said.She also said Fort Worth is largely built out in terms of its needs for compressor stations."We just don't see it's a program that needs to be fixed," she said.Potential for problemsGary Hogan, a neighborhood leader who lives in the Chapel Creek area on the far west side and served on a city gas drilling ordinance committee, says he found 12 agriculturally zoned areas abutting neighborhoods in his area."What the potential of any of those having a major compression station coming in is just hard to say," he said. "But the point is, under our current ordinance, if any operator just decided they wanted to do something that big on agricultural, they could go to City Hall and get a permit by right," subject to considerations such as distances to parks and inhabited buildings.The east-side issue came to a head last year, when the owner of the 42-acre parcel unsuccessfully sought a zoning change from planned development to agricultural, to allow a compressor station.Then earlier this fall, the property owner sought agricultural zoning again -- saying it wanted to return the property to agricultural uses, not use it for a compressor station -- and was denied by the Zoning Commission and City Council.An entity called Two Ponds, working with Chesapeake's Texas Midstream Gas Services, sought the first rezoning of the 42 acres.Chesapeake has since sold Texas Midstream and now contracts compressor services.Even if that site were off the market for a compressor station, homeowners in the area are worried about other pieces of property that are already zoned agricultural."We remain unprotected here," Barnd said.Scott Nishimura, 817-390-7808Twitter: @JScottNishimuraHave more to add? 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