Southlake and natural gas drilling concerns

[loves2read]

If a gas company meets the setbacks and other technical requirements of the city ordinances it cannot stop drilling in an urban environment, not even Bedford. Basically every city has the variance process with different setbacks and technical requirements and its matter of how strong the ordinances are and the ability of the city to enforce them.

I know that=which is why I wrote that in Bedford, the unique conditions mean that any drilling must require a special variance request--which means the city basically has override on any rig location--
not true in other cities in this area which have different ordinances and more open land...

Bedford is basically landlocked and has only two areas large enough to support a well site that I can think of--
both of which are too close to schools and homes to permit a well w/o special variance--which they are very unlikely to get---
the city wrote its ordinance for drilling with that end in mind--
they don't mind mineral owners leasing their interests as long as the well won't be drilled in city limits

[adixyz]

I think the city of Bedford did a pretty good job and although the setbacks are not high (they don't need to in Bedford since it is already built out) it is protecting the town. Likewise in FM they already have higher setbacks (2 or 3 times than a lot of other cities) and are further going to increase setbacks and make already strong ordinances more stronger under a moratarium. Companies will always try to exploit laws and make more profits.The key here is for cities to protect their residents and also give fair rights to mineral owners.