New York Rules Communities Can Zone Out Fracking

Doing so does not run afoul of state law, appeals court says

Communities opposed to hydrofracking can amend their zoning code to do so without running afoul of New York law, a state appeals court ruled.

The Appellate Division decided Thursday that New York's Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law, which has regulated those industries since the 1960s, does not pre-empt new land-use ordinances adopted by Dryden, N.Y., a rural town just east of Ithaca.

"We find nothing in the language, statutory scheme or legislative history of the statute indicating an intention to usurp the authority traditionally delegated to municipalities to establish permissible and prohibited uses of land within their jurisdictions," Justice Karen Peters wrote for a four-member panel of the Appellate Division's Third Judicial Department.