No person who obtained a vested right to conduct drilling operations prior to the effective date of this chapter, shall be required to secure a new conditional use permit for those drilling operations already vested, so long as the vested right has been exercised continuously without being abandoned and as long as no substantial changes have been made in the operation since the vested right was first obtained. Absent a finding of a vested use by the Planning Commission, a new, changed, or modified method of a secondary or enhanced recovery or the use of hydraulic fracturing shall be deemed to be a substantial change which would require an amendment to an existing conditional use permit. Legal non-conforming oil/gas operation shall not be expanded or altered without compliance with this chapter.
(Ord. 918, § 1(part), 2013)