Jefferson County planners want to limit shooting ranges to indoors

PORT TOWNSEND — Planning commissioners told the Board of Jefferson County Commissioners that restricting future shooting facilities to being indoors does not discourage residents from exercising private property rights.

Members of the public disagreed.

Before the Board of County Commissioners enacted a moratorium Monday for any permits related to a commercial shooting facility, the county planning commission provided its recommendation to keep future facilities indoors.

The proposal would amend two ordinances that deal with health and safety as well as land use, and it would attempt to fix a problem found by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board earlier this year.

Mike Nilssen, the chair of the planning commission, said more shooting ranges are moving indoors, and he cited environmental and health effects, both in humans and animals, as reasons for the recommended restriction.

“This would still allow people to use their weapons in this county,” he said. “Our strong recommendation is to adopt the findings.”

The county commissioners will receive a staff report on the planning commission’s recommendation next month, County Administrator Philip Morley said.

“If we want to make any changes to that, we will have our own hearing,” County Commissioner David Sullivan said. “I guess we’re going to have some ongoing anxiety about that for a while.

“Sometimes you have to live with anxiety while you’re going through a process.”

Nilssen pointed to the Jefferson County Sportsmen’s Association (JCSA), the only existing outdoor shooting facility in the county, as a place where rifles can be used.

But Don McNees, the vice president of JCSA, had his own concerns as the association works to execute a grant from the state Recreation and Conservation Office that would help with noise abatement.

“JCSA wants to work out an agreement, and we want to comply with the agreement,” McNees told commissioners Monday. “We want to work on our sound-abatement program, and we’re not certain what the moratorium is going to do in advancing our agenda to be a better neighbor and quiet things down.”

Board Chair Kate Dean told McNees it’s the county’s intent to allow JCSA to continue with the successful grant award because the moratorium would not apply to existing legal non-conforming ranges.

The planning commission’s recommendation on restrictions to future shooting facilities would include commercial and industrial zones.

Planning Commission member Lorna Smith said the county’s comprehensive plan, both in vision statement and adopted policies, say the rural quality of life should be preserved, and outdoor shooting facilities “aren’t compatible with these policies.”

She also said 20 percent of the county’s land base is currently open to outdoor shooting practices on both state and U.S. Forest Service land.

“We are not precluding people from doing rifle target practice in the county,” Smith said.

“There are best management practices they are supposed to use, but that is certainly an activity that goes on now that we are not discouraging in any way.”

Commissioner Greg Brotherton asked about the recommendation’s limit to industrial, commercial and crossroads zones, and Nilssen said the planning commissioners believe those are the only areas where the code would currently allow future shooting facilities.

“From my point of view, when you put a gun range indoors, it becomes an industrial use because it becomes like any other industrial building with an entrance for the public to enter,” Planning Commission vice chair Cynthia Koan said. “It would be more appropriate where we already allow those uses.”

Peter Newland of the Tarboo Ridge Coalition said the recommendation simplifies environmental review, reduces county staff time and eliminates hearing examiner expenses.

“It’s guaranteed safe shooting with little, if any, risk to the public,” he said.

“There is no second amendment issue or case law that impairs your ability to adopt these methods for public safety and to respect our environment,” Newland said.

He pushed county commissioners to explain their reasoning if they choose a different path.

Brotherton, who questioned why planning commissioners want to limit shooting to “0.3 percent of the landscape,” said the board will discuss its findings with the public.

“We’ll be upfront with the decisions that we make, and I’ll be sure to be explicit as to why I make a decision,” he said.

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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.