Gun Club Ordered to Keep 2 Ranges Closed

Members of a gun club who have been shooting clay targets alongside the Santa Clara River for 35 years have been ordered to keep two of their three shooting ranges permanently closed because of zoning violations.

Prompted by complaints of noise from neighbors, county zoning enforcement officers determined in July that the Los Cazadores Gun Club lacked proper permits for two of the three ranges. On Thursday, the Planning Commission denied an appeal by the club.

The decision by the commission disappointed club members who only use the range--situated just east of Ventura--on Sundays from about 9 or 10 a.m. until no later than 5 p.m.

With nearly 100 members, club representatives said, shooting will back up and the ruling might jeopardize the club’s ability to host Amateur Trap Assn. meets.

“You can’t run them with one trap,” member Robert Compton said. He said he didn’t know whether members would appeal Thursday’s decision to the Board of Supervisors.

Residents who live across the river from the gun club were pleased with the decision, but said what they really want is the club to move elsewhere.

“It’s very loud,” said Donna Rennie, who lives less than a half-mile away on Arroyo Seco Drive. “It’s constant--pow, pow, pow, pow. One of my neighbors leaves the home every Sunday because of it. That’s sad.”

John Walker, who lives down the street from Rennie, said it’s like listening to firecrackers all day. “It’s really awful in terms of concentration and relaxation,” he said.

Residents complained that the noise is so annoying that it could affect the value of their property. “It constitutes a nuisance,” Ross Nideffer said. Although there is no danger of being struck, the members shoot in the direction of the residences.

The club opened in 1957 with one trap range on land in the riverbed near Central Avenue. The property then was zoned for unlimited uses, consequently no permit was required.

A second trap range was built in 1982 without a permit. But by this time the zoning had been changed and a permit was required, according to zoning records. Neighbors complained about the club, and in 1984 two members met with a county zoning enforcement officer.

“He investigated and determined both traps were legal,” Compton said. The officer recommended that club members meet with residents to work out their differences, and as a result the club’s hours were shortened on Sundays, according to the zoning records.

But that enforcement officer, Bill Nixon, now has no recollection of any meeting or any verbal approval, according to the records.

“Our contention was and is that based on his statement it was a legal use,” Compton said.

The club shut down its operation from October, 1987, to September, 1989, while the property owner, CalMat, mined the site. Compton said that in 1989 the two ranges and accompanying buildings were reopened, based on the assumption that the zoning was not an issue.

A third trap range was opened in 1991 without county approval. That generated more complaints from neighbors and led to an investigation of the zoning on the site.

Keith Turner, county planning director, determined in July that the first trap range is a legal nonconforming use, but the other two were established without the necessary permits. It was his decision that the club appealed to the Planning Commission, which voted 3 to 2 to uphold Turner’s decision. Voting no were Robert Muraoka and Johnie Carlisle.

The club earlier agreed to shut down the third trap range. But members still believe they have legal grounds to keep the second range open.

Residents said that when the third trap range opened in 1991 the noise became unbearable. In July, when the club closed two of the shooting ranges, the noise problem lessened, but it hasn’t disappeared.

“The blast comes right across the riverbed,” Walker said. “It drives you bananas.”