02/11/2014

Hearing March 10 on draft shooting-range ordinance

The Town Council will hold a public hearing on March 10, 2014 on a proposed shooting-range ordinance, the first-ever legislation aimed at regulating shooting ranges in Cape Elizabeth.

The council's ordinance subcommittee, with the help of Portland attorney Kenneth Cole, drafted the proposal in response to complaints from neighbors of the Spurwink Rod and Gun Club on Sawyer Road.

The ordinance essentially establishes a mechanism for licensing shooting ranges in town.

"The Town Council is not required to create a shooting range ordinance, but we are attempting to work with concerned citizens to help resolve the issue brought before us," ordinance committee chair Kathy Ray said at the council's meeting Feb. 10. "The ordinance committee has tried to strike a balance that preserves safety for all citizens in their homes, with limited regulation.

"We had to work within state and federal limits, and local regulatory authority, and also with the realization that we would be unable to fully satisfy all concerned," she said.

The ordinance establishes a committee for reviewing and granting license applications to operate a shooting range in Cape Elizabeth. It would give the Spurwink Rod and Gun Club, which is the only existing shooting range in town, 180 days to apply for a license after the ordinance is enacted.

One councilor especially encouraged residents to come speak at the hearing. "It's always possible that the council may decide we need an additional workshop, depending on what we learn," said Councilor David Sherman. "We've heard a lot of good feedback to date and would continue to welcome that," he said.

Concerns about noise and safety surrounding the gun club have been brought to the council since at least the mid-1990s, when neighbors petitioned the council for a regulatory ordinance. Councilors at the time did not wish to act beyond encouraging dialogue, citing state and federal restrictions on regulating gun clubs.

Cole did say that state law prohibits local regulation of existing gun-club activity through a noise ordinance. The proposed ordinance, however, focuses on public safety. "It allows for a process by which the Spurwink Rod and Gun Club as an existing gun club would be licensed, and there would be a public-safety review," Cole said at the meeting Feb. 10.

That process, as outlined in the draft, hinges largely on a committee charged with reviewing and recommending applications. The committee would include two councilors, a representative designated by the Spurwink Rod and Gun Club who is also a member of the National Rifle Association, and two at-large members appointed by the Town Council. One of those members would be a certified firearms instructor.

"In fact it's open ended as to the requirements that the shooting range committee itself can make as a part of the initial application, and that the council itself might later require in order to move forward and grant the license," Cole said.

The proposed ordinance also provides for a public hearing before a license is approved by the Town Council.

Cole, like Councilor Ray, said the proposed ordinance is an attempt to balance rights. "We attempted to design a format that allows for public input on both sides of the issue - through what is hopefully a somewhat impartial group - to try to weigh that balance between the property rights of the club, the constitutional rights under the Second Amendment, and the public safety of the citizens are large," Cole said.

"I am not for an instant trying to say that that's an easy process," Cole said. "But we've tried to come up with one that's as fair as possible."

Ray said the ordinance committee met three times during January after the ordinance referral in December. The committee received 16 emails and letters during that month, and 28 people spoke at the meetings. Eight people spoke during the public-comment period at the Feb. 10 meeting, most saying they believed the draft ordinance should do more to ensure safety around the existing club.