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Although there are few opportunities to regulate natural gas development locally, Lycoming County plans to be prepared, just in case.

The county wants to create a zoning ordinance addressing natural gas development to be enacted if legal hurdles prohibiting local regulations are removed.

On Tuesday, Kurt Hausammann Jr., director of the county Department of Planning and Community Development, asked the county commissioners to approve a contract with a consulting firm Gannett Fleming of Camp Hill to help the county craft the ordinance.

"We've looked at ordinances from different states, like Wyoming and Texas, that may be applicable to our county," Hausammann said. "What we want to do it review those (ordinances) with a consultant."

According to Hausammann, the county requires a temporary zoning permit to drill for natural gas or to cross a right-of-way with a pipeline.

Building a compressor station would require land development plan approval by the county Planning Commission, he said.

Other than that, there is little a local municipality can do to regulate natural gas exploration and development, he said.

According to Hausammann,

there are two cases before the state Supreme Court dealing with the ability of municipalities to regulate the industry.

If the court should rule in favor of the municipalities, or, if legislation is enacted on the state level granting such authority, the county would enact the ordinance, he said.

"We're not looking to put changes into effect until we have legal authority to do that," he said. "We want to be ready."

"We're not looking to over-control," Hausammann said. "We want a balanced approach to (regulating) the industry."

If a county zoning ordinance is enacted, it only would apply to the 17 rural municipalities that belong to the county zoning partnership, Hausammann said.

The county would pay the firm about $13,000 to help draft the ordinance, he said.

The commissioners likely will approve the contract Today.

In other business, the commissioners will consider an agreement with Pittsburgh-based MACTEC Engineering and Consulting Inc.

For more than a year, the company has been assessing the marketability of abandoned or underused industrial sites in the area as part of a brownfields assessment survey performed by the county and Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce.

The agreement will allow the company to share information regarding the former Fagnano auto salvage yard on West Third Street with Pennsylvania College of Technology.

According to William Kelly, deputy director of the county Department of Planning and Community Development, the college may buy the site and turn it into a student parking and recreation area but needs to know if the site has any environmental problems.

"MACTEC did an environmental site assessment to determine if there were any environmental concerns or issues with the property," Kelly said. "There were no show stoppers."