Gas drilling…in downtown?

A little quote in this Caravan of Dreams post caught my eye:

There is reason to believe that a gas well planned for the heart of downtown, near Lancaster @ Lamar, will be on S-T property.

Say what? A gas rig in downtown?

For the record, I don’t have a problem with gas drilling, except in cases such as the Trinity Trees situation or the proposals to drill 300 feet from historic homes in Fort Worth South. Well, we can add “plunk a gas rig in downtown” as another thing I will be opposed to.

A gas rig is totally incompatible with the downtown urban environment. It is not pedestrian friendly. It does not support the presence of street life - on the contrary, it is very hostile to people walking by. It would ruin a part of downtown for years - even after the rig is gone, a pump setup would remain, blocking development. It would pose an unneccessary risk to adjacent properties - in a dense downtown environment, an explosive gas well is absolutely not acceptable.

Further, it sounds like it would be dangerously close to Lancaster, which is an area the city wants to see reborn with proper urban development after the Lancaster reconstruction project is finished. A gas well right next to this important corridor would hurt the redevelopment prospects for the area and, plain and simple, is not acceptable.

I’ll be looking in to this rumor, and you can bet that if there’s a shred of truth to it I’ll be vehemently opposed to it.