City Council Rejects Eighth Avenue Variance

Originally appeared on WestAndClear.com on October 8, 2008.

At the end of a very long evening and the vote was tallied, the elation of most in the City Council chambers was matched only by their disbelief as they watched a unanimous vote decline a variance for the proposed drilling site at Eighth Avenue. Even though it was the first time the City had denied a high-impact variance, I was still marveling at how the whole thing wrapped up.

At about the three-and-half-hour mark into last night City Council meeting, City Manager Dale Fisseler exchanged some words with Mayor Mike Moncrief, then stood up from the dais and took the long way around the room to come up behind Moncrief’s predecessor, former Mayor/current Chesapeake Energy consultant Kenneth Barr and asked for a private conference in the hall (at left, Ken’s standing behind an unidentified woman).

Shortly after Fisseler and Barr returned to the chamber, the Mayor cut off public comment and allowed District 9 representative Joel Burns to introduce a motion to deny the high-impact variance sought by Chesapeake and the Fort Worth Western Railroad to drill at the Eighth Avenue site. Kathleen Hicks quickly seconded the motion.

What happened over the next few minutes might be a game-changer in the way the city permits gas wells inside the urban core of Fort Worth.

One by one, the council spoke. And one by one, even some of the most ardent supporters of gas drilling on the council — Carter Burdette and Danny Scarth — said the same thing. Drilling a gas well within 225 feet of residences that don’t want that well is not acceptable in the city of Fort Worth. Sal Espino and Frank Moss agreed.

Then Chuck Silcox — who earlier in the day postponed the permit hearing on the Alton Road pipeline from the proposed TCU gas well — weighed in to support Burns and added that he believes that there should be no waivers at all from the 600-foot setback requirement.

But the biggest bombshell came from the Mayor, who said that there are places in the city where gas drilling is not appropriate before siding with Burns against the permit.

And with that, the gravel came down. Eight opposed, none in favor, Jungus Jordan recused himself because of a conflict of interest related to income that his wife received from a gas well.

From things I had been hearing over the past few months, I have often wondered if Chesapeake was really trying to get this variance approved just stave off a lawsuit from the Fort Worth Western railroad. The neighborhoods seemed so firmly against it, that it really didn’t seem that this variance had a realistic chance of succeeding.

However, over the past few weeks of community meetings, donations to neighborhood associations, direct mail, door-to-door solicitations and automated phone calls, it became clear that Chesapeake was really trying to make this work.

But as a visibly nervous Julie Wilson gave her presentation in favor of the permit for Chesapeake Energy, we got to see of how hamfisted Chesapeake’s efforts really were. When Wilson spoke of the “silent majority” in these neighborhoods who favored this drilling location as she cited research from the Tarrance Group, it reminded me of Bob Bolen’s column in the Star-Telegram recently that made a similar claim citing research from Bryan Eppstein.

Two thoughts — No. 1: When you are quoting Richard Nixon, you are not appealing to the better angels of our nature, you are appealing to paranoia. No. 2: As Mark Twain once said, there’s three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics. When the people who showed up against this site outnumbered those who supported it by about 25 to 1, I’m inclined to think that Julie’s PowerPoint contained all three. And when the president of the Paschal Neighborhood Association, a neighborhood that signed with Chesapeake and would have had their minerals produced by this site, actually spoke against it, it became clear that this variance didn’t have a chance.

But enough piling on. As surprising as the evening was, what’s happening next is by far more interesting.

The thought was that if the City denied a permit on this site or the TCU site, Chesapeake would file a lawsuit contending that the City has no right to enforce a 600-foot setback. Instead, the setback should be only the state-mandated 200 feet. The word was that Chesapeake had already retained some high-dollar lawyers for this and were rarin’ to go with a lawsuit. Chesapeake has already filed suit against Grand Prairie in what amounts to a proxy suit against the city of Fort Worth over compressor stations, so it appeared the full-court press would be on.

Or would it? The unanimous vote might give pause to Chesapeake. Do they really want to pick a fight with the Mayor and the entire City Council? It’s one thing to be chummy with the Mayor and city leaders when your are putting tax dollars in the coffers, it’s quite another when you are costing the city money with an expensive lawsuit that challenges its authority.

Furthermore, Chuck Silcox kind of has Chesapeake by the shorthairs for now over the Alton Road pipeline. As I mentioned above, Silcox postponed consideration of this pipeline until December 2 and has said that he will not even consider allowing this pipeline to cross West Berry until it has a permit. And considering that well’s current location has the neighborhood north of Amon Carter Stadium up in arms, that’s not a slam dunk.

Honestly, I think the city should use more of its leverage to get Chesapeake to straighten up and fly right. If Chesapeake sues the city, I don’t know why the city doesn’t just refuse to allow any Chesapeake pipelines to cross city streets until the suit is resolved.

I’ve said it before, it doesn’t have to be this way. Most of the people who spoke against the site last night aren’t even against gas drilling, but they realize that some sites will not be able to be drilled using current technology. This is one well out of thousands. Gas production in the Barnett Shale won’t come to a screeching halt.

However, as the Mayor pointed out last night, we need a better gas drilling ordinance — that would be a good first step. Ideally, that ordinance would include a plan to minimize the impact of gas drilling operations by using common infrastructure wherever possible with pad sites, pipelines and compressor stations. We need to realize that some sites may not be able to be developed, but that could change in the future.

I think the Council took a big step in the right direction last night. Whether it lasts remains to be seen, but it was a positive step nonetheless. What would help now is less saber-rattling from Chesapeake and more cooperation.

C’mon, Julie, whaddya say? Together, we all could win.