Town puts brakes on special use applications

Flower Mound Town Manager Harlan Jefferson Monday enacted an administrative suspension of certain special use permit and oil and gas pipeline permit applications.

The action was taken in response to public concerns expressed to the town regarding such projects, according to a posting on the town’s website.

This past Saturday, Flower Mound voters gave the green light to three candidates who support enacting a moratorium on new permits for centralized wastewater collection facilities, compression stations and similar projects.

“We’re disappointed by Flower Mound’s decision to enact a moratorium on certain permits that are needed to support natural gas production,” said Williams Production spokesman Kelly Swan.

Shortly after the suspension was put into place Monday, Mockingbird Pipeline, an affiliate of Williams, requested an additional compression station at an existing site in town.

“The request that our affiliate has prepared is for compression only, which helps move natural gas from one pipeline to another. In this instance, the compressors would move natural gas into the Atmos utility pipeline that serves Flower Mound and points beyond,” Swan said.

“Additionally, the request complies with the town’s setback ordinances, adheres to the town’s new landscaping requirements and doesn’t include any provisions for new pipelines or centralized water collection facilities.

“We respectfully withheld this request until there was clarity with regard to the town’s leadership and letting the public petition process reach a logical outcome. With those matters decided, it’s important for us to make sure the local natural gas supply chain is capable of handling incremental volumes, but now we’re being denied a hearing on a process that was established just recently by the town itself.

“We’re assessing the situation and our options carefully, given that our good faith attempts to follow the town’s processes haven’t produced reasonable outcomes.”

The current suspension is scheduled to expire on June 8, if not formally considered by the Town Council prior to that date.

View the suspension notice here.