Planning Commission Agenda and Packet 2019 09 12

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ORDINANCE NO. SERIES 2019 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 17.68 OF THE LOUISVILLE MUNICIPAL CODE TO REQUIRE OIL AND GAS OPERATOR REGISTRATION. WHEREAS, the City of Louisville is committed to protecting the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens, and safeguarding the environment and wildlife resources; and WHEREAS, the City Council believes it has not only the authority but the responsibility to plan for and regulate the use of land within the City in order to best protect and promote the health, safety, and welfare of present and future inhabitants and residents of the City, and to guide future growth, development, and distribution of land uses within the City; and WHEREAS, the City regulates the use of land by those ordinances codified in Title 17 of the Louisville Municipal Code, and has enacted regulations governing oil and gas operations within the City in Chapter 17.68 of the Louisville Municipal Code; and WHEREAS, the City's oil and gas regulations were last updated in 1996 and there are currently no oil or gas operations being conducted within the City; and WHEREAS, on April 16, 2019, the Governor signed Senate Bill 19-181 ("SB 181"), which amended the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act and granted local governments more authority to regulate surface operations and nuisance impacts of oil and gas operations in order to better protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens and to safeguard the environment and natural resources; and WHEREAS, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act also grants the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ("COGCC") authority to adopt statewide rules and regulations concerning the development and production of oil and gas resources, and the COGCC has begun the process of amending its rules and regulations in response to the amendments contained in SB 181; and WHEREAS, the City Council is aware that technological advances within the oil and gas industry, coupled with market conditions and other factors, have resulted in significant increases in oil and gas activities surrounding the City, which have included requests by mineral interest holders and operators for permits for large scale multi -well sites that contain many more wells per site than in previous applications; and WHEREAS, local governments throughout Colorado are struggling to address the potential adverse impacts of proliferating oil and gas activities in urban and suburban environments on their residents' health, safety, and welfare, and several local governments have enacted temporary moratoria to allow a period of time to evaluate those impacts in order to assess, determine, and adopt appropriate local regulations; and 11