A three-judge panel of Commonwealth Court found the Fayette County zoning ordinance is allowed to put additional requirements on oil and natural gas drilling.

The opinion was filed as part of a case that started nearly four years ago when Penneco Oil Company Inc.; Range Resources-Appalachia, LLC; and Independent Oil and Gas Association of Pennsylvania sued, claiming the ordinance should be trumped by the Oil and Gas Act.

The act governs certain things about how and where drilling can be conducted.

Penneco and the others claimed that the zoning was exclusionary, noting that deep and surface mining are allowed outright in certain areas of the county, while oil and gas operations need a special exception to operate in those same areas.

The companies also argued that the county's zoning hearing board has discretion to add conditions to gas and oil operations.

The Oil and Gas Act should supersede any county-imposed policies, the companies contended.

The judges, however, found that the county's zoning ordinance governs the location of oil and gas operations as it pertains to "+ preserving the character of residential neighborhood and encouraging beneficial and compatible land uses."

Senior Judge James R. Kelley, who authored the opinion, wrote that the ordinance "+does not provide Fayette County or its zoning hearing board with virtually unbridled discretion to deny permission to drill an oil and gas well even after compliance with the applicable zoning regulations."

"Accordingly, we conclude that the provisions of the zoning ordinance do not reflect an attempt by Fayette County to enact a comprehensive regulatory scheme relative to the oil and gas development within the county, but instead reflect traditional zoning regulations that identify which uses are permitted in different areas of the locality," Kelley wrote.

President Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter and Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt also participated in the decision.

The companies have the option of appealing the decision to the state Supreme Court.