A neighborhood dispute over a personal shooting range is raising questions about how the Haines Borough should deal with “grandfathering” in uses and activities in a changing community.
Manager David Sosa last month sent resident Gary Keller a cease-and-desist order, telling him his private shooting range at his Beach Road residence was a nuisance and public safety hazard. Sosa warned Keller that if he continued to fire guns on the property, he would be cited for violation of borough code.
According to Keller’s attorney, Keller and his family have used the firing range for the past 28 years. When his Beach Road property was annexed and became part of the townsite in 1999, Keller received a letter from then-city administrator Vince Hansen authorizing Keller to retain the shooting range based on his pre-existing use prior to annexation.
At the time Hansen wrote the letter issuing the non-conforming use permit, there were only two properties in that area of Beach Road.
Sosa visited Keller’s property and determined increased development put the adjacent properties in “the area of concern” for possible ricocheted bullets. Sosa noted the residences on either side of Keller’s property were within 200 meters.
“Considering the increased residential use of the area that had developed in the period since you were originally issued the non-conforming use permit, I determined that the firing range is not consistent with the uses allowed in this zone,” Sosa said.
Planning and zoning technician Tracy Cui agreed.
Keller, who declined to comment at the advice of his attorney, is appealing the cease-and-desist order.
Keller’s attorney Daniel Bruce of the Juneau-based firm Baxter, Bruce and Sullivan dismissed Sosa’s reference to code in the cease-and-desist letter as “meaningless and irrelevant.”
“That section addresses a change in an existing non-conforming use to a new use that is also non-conforming. Mr. Keller has never sought to change his ‘grandfathered’ firing range to a new use,” Bruce said.
“Mr. Keller has safely used his range for 28 years and limited its use to family and individuals whom he knows to practice the highest safety practices. He also limited shooting between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.,” Bruce added.
The matter came to Sosa’s attention when Keller’s neighbor, Rob Miller, came to the borough asking for a copy of the “non-conforming use” letter granting Keller an exception from regulations prohibiting the firing of weapons in the townsite.
Miller, a Beach Road resident for more than a decade, said the range never bothered him previously. “It was never a big deal because there were only guns shot one or two days a year during the summer,” Miller said.
This summer, though, the range has been getting much more use, Miller said. Frightened dogs and alarmed tourists have fled the area after hearing shots, and guests staying with Miller have expressed concern about the noise.
Miller has called the police and urged others concerned about the noise to do so, but the police just tell him the range is legal.
“I didn’t really want to push the safety issue, because even if it’s technically safe, it creates an atmosphere of panic in the neighborhood,” Miller said. “I’m living in a residential subdivision. There’s kids, there’s dogs, there’s tourists going up that road.”
The fact that at one time the borough grandfathered in Keller’s shooting range shouldn’t tie the municipality’s hands now, Miller said. “If they can provide an exemption, then they can unprovide it.”
Mayor Stephanie Scott said the situation is emblematic of the “growing pains” experienced in a developing community.
“Neighborhoods change and suddenly there are problems. It’s happening all over Haines,” Scott said. “People move in, people move out, people develop property that was hitherto undeveloped and can create problems.”
Scott said Sosa met with Keller to discuss possible changes to the shooting range to make it technically safer, according to the military standards Sosa used to evaluate the existing facility.
“I guess (Keller) has decided that that isn’t something he wants to do. He doesn’t want to modify his existing arrangement,” Scott said.
The assembly will hear Keller’s appeal at its Tuesday meeting.