HomeMy WebLinkAbout50 Story11/13/2019 ZON18-00036 - Planning Commission Desk
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ZON18-00036
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Greetings,
I am submitting the attached document to enter into the public testimony regarding Commercial Shooting Ranges.
I appreciate your consideration of these points as you make your recommendations to the County Commissioners.
The document contents here are also copied below in the body of this email.
Thank you for your service to our county,
Sonia Story
Sonia Story <sonia@moveplaythrive.com>
Wed 11/6/2019 7:32 PM
To:Planning Commission Desk <PCommissionDesk@co.jefferson.wa.us>;
2 attachments
tarboo-public testimony-11-6-19.pdf; ATT00001.txt;
11-6-19
Thank you Jefferson County Planning Commissioners.
I greatly appreciate your service to our community.
On page 20, #5 of the draft ordinance there is a confusing double negative
that I feel could be misinterpreted.
"In order to preserve the overall character of forest resource lands
within the county, while complying with the supremacy principle stated
in WAC 365-196-725, the county will not permit no more than 0.5
percent of the total forest resource lands for use as
outdoor commercial shooting facilities in the county.”
It would be more clear to say: "the county will permit no more than 0.5
percent.”
Please recommend changing this sentence to omit the double negative.
I believe the MOST important rule we can make regarding gun ranges is
where it is permissible to LOCATE them.
Our review process can fail again if we do not make clear rules about
exactly where it is permissible to locate a gun range.
With safety issues, lead pollution issues, noise issues, environmental
issues—
With the need for protecting water, wildlife, wetlands, impacts on tourism,
and on travel via state and local roadways—
We have no business even considering siting a gun range in a place:
1. That destroys the environment of a public recreation site such as Tarboo
lake.
2. That destroys a salmon restoration site and watershed.
3. That degrades the property values and quality of life of surrounding
private residents and landowners.
4. That impacts treaty-reserved hunting rights and public hunting
opportunities in the surrounding lands.
5. Where there is a real possibility that a stray bullet could hit a resident or
traveler on nearby roadways.
Please include in your recommendations rules about where a gun range is
permissible to be located in our county.
It is also important to make transparent what happened the last time we
were at this same juncture.
Philip Hunsucker, acting as our Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, has
repeatedly warned and stated at public hearings that it would be wrong to
create legislation against one individual or against one individual’s project.
While that is true, it is just as wrong to legislate FOR one individual. Yet,
that is what appears to be happening.
How else can we explain our ordinances that ignored the review
committee’s recommendations?
How else can we explain Mr Hunsucker’s weekly calls with the attorney
representing ONE individual and that individual’s development project?
How else can we explain the pages and pages of blacked-out redacted
documents and the lack of transparency?
Why is it that though we have a model set of rules from Kitsap county that
have withstood legal challenge—those rules and guidelines were ignored in
the last moratorium period?
Rejecting the Kitsap model, cost all of us hugely in time, expense and
resources.
Please recommend embracing the clear, legally sound rules in the Kitsap
ordinance.
Please recommend getting help from our State Attorney General about
legal issues, especially as it pertains to the possibility of grandfathering in
the Jefferson County Sportsman’s Association (JCSA).
Thank you for your work to serve this community and may we all do our
part to help peace and sanity prevail.
Sonia Story
Chimacum, WA 98325