Cranberry-based MPF Management’s plans to rezone part of Indiana Township for potential oil and gas development have been halted by township officials.

The board voted 4-1 on August 14 not to hold a public hearing on a request to convert a 59-acre parcel along Route 910 from an office/commercial zone to a light industrial zone.

Vice Mayor Darrin Krally disagreed. He attended the meeting by phone and answered questions by email the next day.

“I voted for the public hearing so that all citizens have the opportunity to express their opinions,” Krally said.

“Soliciting public input is standard practice for good to excellent local government, and Indiana Township has been doing it for over 20 years. Several citizens at yesterday’s meeting praised us for our excellent government. It never gets old to hear that.”

The township’s planning commission voted to deny the application last month.

Township Manager Dan Anderson said the public hearing was a step in the legal process to officially put the zoning change on the ballot.

The rejection of the hearing was de facto a rejection of the motion after nearly 20 people spoke out against the proposal.

MPF manager Jon Teacoach, one of the five owners, also answered questions from superiors before the vote.

“It’s not a drilling company,” Teacoach explained. “We’re a management company. We own oil and gas rights and support other oil and gas rights in many areas. … Our goal would be to get that change and convince a gas company to eventually file (its own) application to use our rights at that or another site in the community.”

Teacoach said the company had reached an agreement with a supplier to purchase a site and had been in discussions with the owners of the former US Pallet Co. site.

Following the vote, Teacoach said he would speak with other MPF management representatives to discuss next steps.

Fox Chapel Area School Board Vice President Ronald Frank and board member Ariel Zych were among those speaking against the proposal, both citing student health and safety as reasons for rejecting the request.

Zych, who lives in Fox Chapel, said they came to the town meeting as concerned citizens, not as district representatives. Zych expressed relief at the supervisors’ decision.

“Fracking should not take place within a mile of a public school,” she said.

Dorseyville Middle School and Hartwood Elementary School share a campus in the township.

Local resident Steve Fine asked attendees if they moved to the township because of the quality of life and schools, and many raised their hands. He also asked if people moved to the township to have “fracking 300 feet from their backyard,” and no one raised their hands.

Fine urged supervisors to listen to their constituents, not outside companies.

“These people are not members of the community. We are the members of this community,” Fine said. “We have a right to clean air. We have a right to not have this (potential gas source) roaring 24 hours a day and rattling our windows like the last one you allowed on Cove Run Road. I’ve witnessed that.”

The Planning Commission’s denial was based largely on MPF ​​Management’s failure to provide geotechnical engineering and feasibility studies for the property, as well as a market study by a broker or appraiser reporting on market trends in the area for commercial uses.

The office/commercial zone is geared towards the establishment of professional office centers, restaurants, retail stores and the like.

The above reports were requested by the Planning Commission in May.

Attorney Jake Polochak represented MPF Management at the meeting. He said the selected site was more beneficial to the community than a previously considered site on the former US Pallet Co. site. He said the site is farther from residential homes and less visible from roads.

Most of the 59-acre property would be donated to the community, and only about 5 to 6 acres would comprise the actual business premises, the attorney said.

Polochak said the original site would have conditionally permitted the construction of a gas well, so a rezoning application would not have been necessary.

Teacoach stated at the board meeting that the company would have been able to present “some information on this matter” at a public hearing.

Local resident Nettie Owens echoed many of the other speakers’ comments on the oil and gas wells, saying MPF’s refusal to comply with the commission’s request should also be a reason for the regulator to refuse a public hearing.

“These people have done a mediocre job and we should give them more time?” asked Owens.

Supervisors Jonathan Neumann and Sarah Hertweck said the Planning Commission’s rejection and the lack of the MPF report played a role in their vote.

“They didn’t meet the burden of proof required to rezone a property,” Hertweck said. “I wanted their economic assessment that Indiana Township would benefit from no longer having this flexible office/commercial space.”

“We updated our entire zoning just five years ago. If we didn’t want the zoning to be the way it is, we would have changed it five years ago.”

Other gas matters

Supervisors also discussed the municipality’s oil and gas ordinance, particularly the setbacks associated with such developments.

Attorney Irving Firman said the ordinance is very strict and requires a safety distance of 500 feet from buildings and 250 feet from property lines.

He said these restrictions would be based on state law and any tightening of these restrictions could be challenged in court.

Firman noted that in some court cases, restrictions of 650 and 750 feet have been found to be “not unreasonable.”

The supervisors discussed the legal process for changing their ordinance and the need for a public hearing, a planning commission and reviews by Allegheny County.

Mayor Albert Kaan said he was not in favor of involving the municipality in what would likely be costly legal proceedings over “a few hundred meters.”

The issue was placed on the agenda for August 14 as a discussion item. No formal action was taken.