It’s an issue many growing communities struggle with: Urban development increasingly encroaching on outdoor rifle ranges.
Mike Wallace, president of the Squamish Rod and Gun Club, appeared before mayor and councillors at a committee meeting last week to discuss the club’s status and possible noise attenuation measures.
“The most contentious issue the club has is noise attenuation,” Wallace told the committee. “The present location was established a long time ago and was acceptable to the residents of Squamish who built and maintained the club.”
Since 2008, six noise complaints have been lodged against the 74-year-old club located on Centennial Way, according to district staff. The discussion of the club at the district committee meeting sprang from a recent letter of complaint from Daryl Sinclair, who recently moved to Garibaldi Highlands and was shocked to discover the gun club operated within earshot of his new home.
“This is a growing area with ongoing development and expansion, and it is baffling that the city would permit this rifle range to continue to operate in its current location in light of this development,” he wrote. “This rifle range may pose a serious impediment to attracting new residents to this area.”
Wallace said real estate agents should be making it clear to potential buyers in the Highlands that there is a gun club in the vicinity. He also noted that the club has restricted hours and events when gunfire can be heard. The club has a committee that is looking for long-term solutions to the noise, according to Wallace.
At the district meeting it was agreed it would be productive to have a District of Squamish staff member liaise with that board to help come up with solutions.
Possible solutions to the noise include suppressors on weapons, sound baffles – materials installed that absorb the gun shot sound – and relocation.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman said one of the most common complaints she hears when residents approach her is about noise from the gun club.
“The town has grown up around the club and at some point it is going to have to move, in my opinion,” she said.
The first step is for the club to find a way to lesson the impact of the gun fire noise, she said. The club’s Crown lease to operate extends to 2044 and was supported by Squamish council in 2013, Wallace noted.
Squamish’s club isn’t unique in facing noise complaints. Several clubs in growing communities are facing the same pressures, according to Tom Wallis of the 38-acre Langley Rod and Gun Club. Communities are trying to “please a few” by muzzling the clubs, he says.
“It is usually one or two neighbours who I guess assume their life is more important than yours. That is how I find it anyway.”
In Langley, the club’s eventual demise is laid out in the city’s official community plan, which envisions the club as half park and half residential, Wallis said.
The Burnaby Mountain outdoor rifle range was closed by the city when that club’s lease was not renewed in 1996. The land was remediated and turned into a park, at a cost of $1.2 million, not including assessment and post-remediation site monitoring, according to City of Burnaby staff.
Paul Greening, vice-president of the Squamish club, points out that while some new residents may loudly oppose noise from the Squamish club, it has seen a 300-per-cent increase in new members.
“They are people who are coming to Squamish… 30 to 40-year-olds with their kids,” he said. “There is a shift in the population in Squamish and that shift is what has given the increase in local membership.”
Of the club’s 750 members, 465 are residents of Squamish, according to club officials. Greening added that if the club was moved the issue would pop up again when development reached further out. If the club was ever shut, it would force those who want to target shoot out into the backcountry in an uncontrolled environment, he added.
“I don’t want 750 members out in the woods doing their own thing,” he said.
Greening and Wallis both said they believe the majority of people support the gun clubs.
The Salt Spring Island Rod and Gun Club, faced with litigation over the shooting noise from its club, launched a survey in the summer of 2014 that resulted in more than 80 per cent of respondents (1,049) not supporting restrictions on the club.
