PITTSBURGH — Arguments in the second appeal of a Middlesex Township shale gas ordinance were heard by a panel of judges on Monday.

Attorneys for each side of the appeal to the Middlesex zoning ordinance amendment that regulates unconventional gas operations in the township were given eight minutes to pitch their cases in Commonwealth Court in the Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh.

The zoning amendment was approved by township supervisors in August 2014 despite the planning commission’s recommendation to delay their vote to study the situation further.

Attorney Jordan Yeager, representing the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the Clean Air Council and a number of Middlesex Township residents, appealed the amendment to the township zoning hearing board, and several lengthy hearings were held over several months.

The zoning board in May 2015 upheld the ordinance amendment, and Yeager appealed it to county court. There, Judge Michael Yeager refuted each of the claims of the appealers before dismissing their case entirely and affirming the zoning board’s decision to uphold the amendment.

The group then appealed Yeager’s decision to Commonwealth Court, where the arguments were heard on Monday.

Judges Patricia McCullough, Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter and Michael Wojcik heard eight minutes of arguments from Yeager on the appealers’ side, and Michael Hnath, Middlesex Township solicitor, and Kevin Colosimo, attorney for Rex Energy.

Yeager argued that 90 percent of the township is now open to some form of unconventional gas drilling operations. He said many families moved to neighborhoods near the controversial Geyer well pad on Denny Road and did not expect to end up living near a shale gas well.

He said parents are concerned about the Geyer wells being developed just more than a half-mile from the Mars School District schools.

“Rather than (the school district) being a place to evacuate to, it is a place to evacuate from,” Yeager said, referring to the possibility of an emergency at the Geyer well.

He said the wells, which are in an agricultural zone, present a risk to nearby residents and students that was not contemplated when the zoning districts were created.

McCullough asked Yeager why the Geyer wells are not compatible to the township’s zoning when shale gas wells exist in agricultural zones all over the state.

Yeager replied that the term “industrial use” differs among communities. He added that there are uses being denied in zoning districts all over the state that have far less an impact than an unconventional gas well pad.

McCullough pressed Yeager, asking why a shale gas well is inconsistent with the agricultural zone where the Geyers live and not in another township.

Yeager replied that no other use in an agricultural zone would require the earth-moving of a well pad or cause the amount of noise or truck traffic. He added that a well pad that appears to be completed can be fracked again multiple times.

Middlesex solicitor Michael Hnath argued that contrary to the claim that unconventional gas wells, compressor stations or processing plants can occur in 90 percent of the township, the zoning hearing board said the correct number is 30 percent.

Hnath said wells are allowed in seven zoning districts, and that does not include the residential 1 or residential 2 zones, or in planned residential developments. Compression stations are permitted in four districts and processing plants in two.

“Zoning regulates the use of land, not specific development,” Hnath said.

Rex Energy attorney Kevin Colosimo said the appealers’ claim that the ordinance amendment expands gas development in the township is false, as there was no ordinance before the amendment was passed.

Colosimo called the appealers’ stance “the new world of zoning law” where residents say the municipality should be more restrictive.

“They’re trying to use zoning law to impact the private property rights of a neighbor,” Colosimo said.

He also pointed out that three shale gas wells existed in the township before the ordinance was approved.

The panel of judges did not make a decision on Monday.