A Colorado-based gas drilling company will be allowed to start planning for and preparing the sites of five fracking wells on the west side of Denton.
On Monday, the Denton Zoning Board of Adjustments approved a waiver for the company to their current gas drilling moratorium.
City Intergovernmental Relations Officer Lindsey Baker described the wavier as primarily administrative.
"It allows staff to review their (Vantage’s) amendments to the already existing site plan,” said Baker.
The site plan for the wells at 10343 W. University Drive was originally approved in 2012, but as they prepared the site their permits expired and the city enacted the moratorium in May.
Baker said the amendments the company wants to make to the site plan would help them come into further compliance with the city’s existing gas well ordinance and allow them the right to start the process of applying for permits.
However, the city stresses this does not mean there will be new drilling.
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"The board of adjustments did not issue any permits, did not approve any permits and it did not authorize any drilling,” said Baker. “No drilling has been authorized.”
Vantage already has one existing drill operation less than a half-mile west of the sites in question.
Baker said that site was approved and went up just before the moratorium so they were allowed to continue.
This is, however, the first major challenge to Denton’s moratorium since it went into effect in early May.
The move by council was a result of public outcry after fracking wells went up very close to homes in the Vintage neighborhood, violating city ordinance.
The moratorium would provide council time to work with the drilling industry to on a tougher set of local rules, but within weeks of the start, a citizens’ petition was presented and approved by the city asking for an all-out ban on fracking.
After a marathon council session on July 15, members elected to let voters decide on the November ballot whether or not hydraulic fracture drilling will be allowed at all in the city.
While the moratorium is set to expire on Sept. 9, the council is expected to meet and likely extend it until the voters make their decision.
"We really just got to wait and see what happens,” said Baker.
Adam Briggle with the Denton Drilling Awareness Group, the team pushing for the ban, said his group expected challenges like this to the moratorium, and that this is evidence more will likely be on the way if things stay the course.
"It's going to be full of loopholes and variances and ways to get out of it. So if we really want to protect our neighborhoods and our health and safety, the ban is the only way to go,” said Briggle.
NBC 5 reached out to Vantage Energy for comment Thursday, but so far, they haven't returned our calls.
Our partners at the Denton Record Chronicle report that the company told the Zoning Board of Adjustments that the moratorium posed “unique and undue hardship” that could cost them around $14.4 million without the waiver to move forward at the five sites.
The land is on the far-western boarder of the city and appears to be well outside of the city required distance from homes.
The DRC also reports the land is owned by former Dallas Cowboy Brian Baldinger, who lives out of state and invested in the property some years ago. Baldinger played for the Cowboys from 1982-1987 and is currently a sports broadcaster.
