HomeMy WebLinkAbout46 LocalioTo: The Jefferson County Planning Commissioners
From: Susan Localio, 406, T Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368
November 6, 2019
I attended last night's meeting at Chimacum High School but was not able to stay for the entire
meeting. But I did want to make my thoughts concerning commercial shooting facilities known
to you.
I agree that the Planning Commission needs to clearly define what it means by small scale and
recreational and tourist when it comes to shooting ranges. The Planning Commission needs to
draft "bright line" regulations concerning these facilities. I would ask that you consider the
following points. A shooting facility, no matter where in the county it is located, should take into
consideration the rights of its neighbors and the environmental impacts it may have. It should
not be a training center for non -local law enforcement or paramilitary or military groups. It
should not allow weapons that are of military grade like machine guns, rocket launchers or
mortars. It should not affect streams or wetlands or lakes. Nor should it be open to helicopters
or other aircraft. It should be required to mitigate noise levels using berms or, if in an area with
close neighbors, be inside completely. It should be fenced to protect wildlife. All the above fits
into the criteria of small scale recreational and tourist.
It is my understanding that the shooting range run by the Jefferson Country Sportsman's
Association has a long history of meeting community needs while also respecting its
neighbors. Surely that should be a model for any future ranges.
What is fundamentally at stake here is the rights of an individual versus the rights of The
Commons. Although a large scale shooting facility with a lot of uses and extended hours might
be lucrative for its owner, it does so at the expense of its neighbors. I urge you to consider the
rights of those of us who live in this county, those who were born here as well as those of us
who moved here because of the peace and the rural character of our surroundings. I'll
conclude with a poem by Wendell Berry which says much more eloquently than I ever could
what living close to nature means to so many of us.
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and 1 wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And 1 feel above me the day -blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Sincerely,
Susan Localio
JEFFERSON COUNTY DCD