PORT TOWNSEND — Strong opinions were shared with the Jefferson County commissioners at a public hearing regarding a proposed ordinance meant to harmonize the recently adopted Title 18 of the Jefferson County Code with the Commercial Shooting Facilities Ordinance.
Monday night’s hearing was to gather testimony about making the code’s Title 18 — which deals with enforcement actions to protect the public health, safety and welfare — consistent with the shooting facilities ordinance commissioners approved on Nov. 2.
The Jefferson County Commissioners heard testimony from 52 people out of the more than 100 present who spoke passionately both for and against the measure at the hearing at Fort Worden Commons.
After reviewing both oral and written testimony, commissioners will convene a special meeting at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.
They will discuss whether to accept the county planning commission’s recommended ordinance as written, ask for changes to be made, or reject it. A decision may be made at the meeting.
If they do not approve the ordinance, commissioners will consider extending a one-year moratorium on new commercial shooting facilities in unincorporated Jefferson County and expansion of existing facilities. The present moratorium will expire this coming Monday.
Austin Watkins, community development planning manager, said that the planning commission’s Title 18 recommendations were meant to “close the loopholes because of “inconsistent definitions in the Unified Development Code.”
“The use table does not clearly permit indoor commercial facilities and does not expressly permit outdoor commercial shooting facilities, but does permit “outdoor shooting ranges” that are a small-scale recreation and tourist use,” Watkins said.
Recommendations would have small-scale recreation and tourist use facilities needing conditional use permits in commercial forest, rural forest and inholding forest zones. Commercial use would be allowed in commercial forest and inholding forest zones only.
Indoor facilities would need conditional use permits in all zones, except agricultural land and rural residential.
Staff does not recommend a 500-yard buffer around any lake greater than 20 acres because the language overlaps with the Shoreline Management Act which would have jurisdiction.
Hours of operation and noise mitigate would be addressed by the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and conditional use permit (CUP) process.
Speakers talked to commissioners about shooting ranges.
Teri Hein of Old Tarboo Road said she was against night shooting and stressed that she wanted “no military or law enforcement training at the Cedar Hills Recreational site planned at Tarboo Lake by Joe D’Amico.”
D’Amico, the owner of Sequim-based Security Services Northwest, has purchased 40 acres near Tarboo Lake and plans to move his gun range and training facility formerly called Fort Discovery when it was located at Discovery Bay to the Cedar Hills Recreational Facility site.
D’Amico has said the facility would incorporate his buildings from the former Fort Discovery and train local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, private citizens and diplomats.
“I have rights for a tranquil life,” Hein said. “The military already owns 942,457 acres in this state and surely they can find a space for their own training outside of Jefferson County.”
Michael Asbury of Port Ludlow is a lifetime member of the Jefferson County Sportsmen’s Association.
“I implore you, when you make your decision, please think about what the alternative is going to be if you limit or regulate shooting facilities out of our ability to use them. What is already a mess out there in the peninsula is going to become 10 times worse.”
Steve Rakin of Sequim wondered why there is a condition for an 8-foot fence.
“Are we worried that someone might break into a shooting range and get shot at because we can’t tell the difference between a cardboard target and a person?”
Lee Smith of Lost Forest Lane, works for the Navy in acoustics and is familiar with analysis and mitigation in communities and underwater.
“The way the ordinance is written right now is that it is nonsensical for noise,” Smith said. “You need to set standards that are measurable and have concrete numbers. Gunshot noise is an incredibly difficult thing to measure with acceptable international standards.”
Fred Zeil of Port Townsend said he’s seen law enforcement and military at the Jefferson County Sportsmen’s Association facility.
“They aren’t doing paramilitary training, they are doing competency law enforcement training,” Zeil said. “We are supporting law enforcement to do their job.
“To do anything to detract from the current status quo would decrease the competency of the people we rely on for our safety.”
“Putting a restriction on JCSA would be difficult to comply with and will force the facility to eventually close.”
Sonia Story of Chimacum suggested the moratorium be continued because, “No one is aware of what went on in the secret meetings. You can close loopholes without throwing away a watershed or a pristine lake.”
Fern Stroble of Tarboo Road said that she and her husband have lived on their acreage for 24 years and are within two miles of the proposed shooting and training facility. They are beekeepers.
“We chose our property out of necessity for its quiet surroundings,” Stroble said. “My husband suffers from combat-induced PTSD from serving our country in Viet Nam.
“What will affect us personally are the unrelenting noise, the firearms, the explosives of any types,” she said.
“These types of noises will devastate my husband with flashbacks, ruin our lives, our honey business, not to mention the impact it will have on the wildlife in our area, and five communities of 350 families that live within three miles of ground zero. The real estate values will definitely plummet.
“Can you imagine going into a real estate office and asking, ‘Does anyone know where there’s a war zone I can move to?’”
To read the proposed amendments, go to https://tinyurl.com/PDN-proposedamendments.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com.
As one of 52 speakers at Monday’s meeting of the Jefferson County commissioners, Michael Asbury of Port Ludlow said if changes are made to the existing gun range in Jefferson County, the alternative will be 10 times worse.” (Jeannie McMacken/Peninsula Daily News)
