The Haines Borough Assembly decided Tuesday a Beach Road man can keep the personal shooting range he’s maintained at his residence for 28 years.
The assembly voted unanimously to reverse manager David Sosa’s order for Gary Keller to stop using his backyard shooting range.
Though discharging firearms is prohibited in the townsite, Keller received a non-conforming use permit from the city to keep using the 25-yard range after his property was annexed in 2001.
Sosa and police chief Bill Musser visited Keller’s property after receiving a noise complaint from neighbors Rob and Ardy Miller. While Sosa said he wasn’t concerned with Keller’s safety practices, his military training and knowledge of ballistics led him to determine neighborhood properties fell within “areas of concern” for possible ricocheted bullets.
Keller met with Sosa and Mayor Stephanie Scott Sept. 2 to discuss the matter, and reached a “verbal agreement” that if Keller developed sufficient safeguards at the range, he would be able to keep shooting there. The police chief would have had to approve the plan.
Instead, Keller appealed the decision, coming to the assembly Tuesday for a reversal of Sosa’s order. Keller repeatedly promised to make the necessary safety adjustments, but was adamant that he didn’t want to engage in a formal agreement with the borough about making the changes.
“I just want my shooting range back,” Keller said, “and I will take all the strides in the world to make it satisfactory to the chief and to the manager or any one of you here, but I want to keep the two things separate. I believe that’s a fair request. I’ve been fine and safe just with what I’ve got, and I will give you my word that I will do all I can to put the plans I gave the chief into practice.”
The assembly ultimately agreed not to formally require Keller to make the safety adjustments and to take Keller at his word.
“I’m willing to give him that respect,” said assembly member George Campbell.
Assembly member Debra Schnabel tried to amend the motion to include a provision that Keller must submit a written assurance that the safety changes would be made, but the motion failed.
The borough received 10 letters commenting on Keller’s range and several people turned out to testify at Tuesday’s hearing.
Kenny Waldo, a friend of Keller’s who has shot at the range, said he’s been handling firearms for more than 60 years and hasn’t seen anything dangerous on Keller’s property. “I certainly have observed nothing there that I would construe as a danger to anybody, either the people shooting there, or the shooting range,” Waldo said.
Beach Road resident Diana Kelm, who has lived in the area for 15 years, pointed to Keller’s flawless safety record and history on the property as reasons he should be allowed to keep the range.
“I do support their right to continue their life in the manner in which they anticipated when they first arrived in the neighborhood, including the rifle activity. Their history with this activity is testimony in and of itself to their responsible use of it,” Kelm said.
Some residents submitted letters agreeing with Sosa’s decision and urging the assembly to keep the cease-and-desist order in place. Beach Road resident Melissa Aronson said she has been frightened by the gunshots, and has spoken with cruise ship passengers concerned about the noise.
Aronson said the use is incompatible with the residential neighborhood, and she and her late husband likely wouldn’t have bought the property in 2004 if they knew about the nearby shooting range.
“We were moving from a rural area of California where twice we had almost been hit by bullets from neighbors shooting irresponsibly and one of our neighbors died when a stray bullet hit her in the head. Obviously, hearing gunshots in the neighborhood would be highly undesirable,” Aronson said.
Seasonal Beach Road residents and property owners Bern Savviko and Wendie Marriott asked that the cease-and-desist order be kept in place.
“Use of a property in the area as a gun range just doesn’t fit into the residential zoning that I bought into,” Savviko and Marriott wrote. “I do not want to restrict Mr. Keller’s property rights, however in regards to this particular use, I believe it is in the best interest of everyone in the area to have Mr. Keller follow the rules that the rest of us live by and use the shooting range out by the Mt. Riley trailhead.”
Assembly members said Keller had the right to continue using the range due to his non-conforming use permit.
Assembly member Campbell said taking away Keller’s right to the range would lead toward revocation of other rights.
“The next thing that’s going to happen is they are going to come out to my house and they are going to say, ‘Well, gee, Mr. Campbell, you could have a ricochet (bullet) that could go into two or three of your neighbors’ houses so you need to have these berms or you can’t shoot anymore,’” Campbell said. “Whether this is a shooting range or a dog team or whatever, we need to protect our citizen rights.”