Energy Shareholder Shawn N. Gallagher Quoted in Observer-Reporter about Challenge to Robinson Township Zoning Law

On October 30, Shawn N. Gallagher, shareholder in the firm’s Energy Section, was one of nine attorneys who participated in the first hearing on a challenge to zoning law in Robinson Township, Pa., as reported in the Observer-Reporter. The zoning solicitor moderated arguments among the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, the township and natural gas companies regarding whether the zoning challenge, which was lodged by six township residents, was legitimate. The challenge was filed September 4 in response to a zoning amendment that changed the approval process for natural gas applications. Gallagher argued the challenge should be dismissed because it does not meet the legal criteria of standing and rightness.

Gallagher stated, “I’ve read the challenge, and I don’t understand why we’re even here today…there is case law that you have to have a substantial, direct and immediate interest to have standing, and it has to be something above the common interest of everyone.”

Read the full article: “Attorneys dispute Robinson zoning challenge” (Observer-Reporter, October 31, 2014)