Fort Discovery Corp. v. Jefferson County
| Decision Date | 09 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | 53245-0-II |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
| Parties | FORT DISCOVERY CORP., a Washington Corporation; STEPHEN ANDERSON, STEVEN GILSTROM, and JAY TOWNE, Appellants, v. JEFFERSON COUNTY, a Washington municipality, Respondent. |
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
In November of 2017, we decided Kitsap County v. Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club, 1 Wn.App. 2d 393, 405 P.3d 1026 (2017), upholding a Kitsap County ordinance that imposed uniform permitting requirements on commercial shooting facilities. Shortly thereafter, Jefferson County undertook the creation of its own ordinance, modeled after the one we upheld in Kitsap County. However, unlike the Kitsap County ordinance, Jefferson County's ordinance included a restriction on shooting at commercial facilities after dark. Appellants, including commercial shooting range owners and their patrons, filed suit seeking to invalidate Jefferson County's ordinance.
Appellants Fort Discovery Corp., Stephen Anderson, Steven Gilstrom, and Jay Towne, (together, "Appellants") appeal from the trial court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Jefferson County and denying Appellants' cross motion for summary judgment. Appellants argue that the trial court erred because (1) RCW 9.41.290 preempts Jefferson County's ordinance, (2) the preemption exception in RCW 9.41.300(2) does not apply, (3) the ordinance is unconstitutional under article I, section 24 of the Washington Constitution, and (4) the ordinance is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
We hold that (1) RCW 9.41.290 does not preempt the entire ordinance but the provision restricting shooting after dark regulates the discharge of firearms within the scope of RCW 9.41.290; (2) the entire ordinance, including the restriction on shooting after dark, is valid because this restriction falls within the exception to preemption under RCW 9.41.300(2)(a); (3) the ordinance does not violate article I, section 24 of the Washington Constitution; and (4) the ordinance does not violate the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Accordingly we affirm.
Fort Discovery Corporation ("Fort Discovery") operated a commercial shooting range in Jefferson County from 1990 to 2017. The Jefferson County Sportsmen's Association ("Sportsmen's Association") is the only other commercial shooting range currently operating in Jefferson County. The Sportsmen's Association has been operating for over 56 years, with a "perfect" safety record and has not had "incidents of any kind," during that time period. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 305. Fort Discovery similarly did not have any incidents requiring "'medical attention'" during its 27 years of operation. Id. at 174.
In the summer of 2017, Joseph D'Amico, president of Fort Discovery, decided to move the gun range to a new location. D'Amico informed the Jefferson County planning department of his intent to close the former range and build a new range in a remote location near Lake Tarboo, where the nearest inhabited home was approximately 1.5 miles from the property. However, D'Amico's plans to move the gun range came to a halt on December 18, 2017, when Jefferson County issued an emergency moratorium on any new shooting ranges in unincorporated Jefferson County.
The emergency moratorium was passed to allow the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners ("BoCC') to develop an ordinance that would provide uniform permitting requirements for shooting ranges. The moratorium called for the creation of a review committee to advise the BoCC in drafting the ordinance, consisting of multiple interested parties including representatives from both commercial shooting facilities, [1] the Jefferson County sheriff, and "at large" property owners appointed by the BoCC, among others. Id. at 243. The review committee's task was to "study the safety, environmental and land use impacts of commercial shooting facilities and reasonable measures to address those impacts," and to "provide input to the County as the County generates and recommends a draft ordinance." Id.
Id. at 240. This finding refers to an incident during which a realtor was showing a property to a prospective buyer when they heard bullets going past the trees overhead and saw what they believed were bullet holes in a trailer on the property. Sheriff Art Frank determined that the complaint was "unfounded." Id. at 275. He opined that the dents visible on the trailer did not appear to be caused by the direct fire of bullets coming from the range and the design of the range "appear[ed] to be constructed sufficiently to prevent a direct shot from striking the structure." Id. at 272. The sheriff also did not believe, based on his "experience and understanding of bullet behavior," that the bullets heard traveling overhead at that property originated from the Sportsmen's Association. Id.
During the sheriff's investigation, Captain Stamper researched whether there were any prior reports of bullets leaving the Sportsmen's Association facility and Stamper discovered 11 complaints from a variety of addresses in the area dating back to 2008, not including the incident involving the realtor. Two complaints that involved bullets striking property were explicitly determined to be unfounded at the time they were investigated. For the remaining nine complaints, Stamper's memorandum could be read to suggest that the shooting position on the range was too far to allow stray bullets to pass overhead or to reach any of the nearby properties, but it did not make any specific conclusions to that effect.
The review committee produced a comprehensive report, as well as a draft ordinance that was consistent with the report, to the BoCC in August 2018. The report noted that, after "many weeks" of "active participation" at public review committee meetings, the draft ordinance was "borne of balancing interests," to which some parties will object because "it goes too far and some probably will say it does not go far enough." Id. at 412. Nevertheless, the review committee believed the draft ordinance would withstand legal challenge because the drafting process was open and inclusive, it did not directly regulate "any particular facility, person or project, despite the claims of some and the hopes of others," and committee members "worked hard to rely on the BoCC's substantial health and safety powers as the basis for the draft ordinance, as Kitsap County[2] did in its successful defense of its own shooting range ordinance." Id. The review committee also relied heavily on the NRA Range Source Book, which provides guidance to assist in designing safe shooting facilities. The draft ordinance repeated in its entirety the legislative finding regarding the report of a bullet striking a residence that was also included among the legislative findings in the moratorium.
There was an extended public comment period for the draft ordinance, as well as public hearings. Fort Discovery submitted written comments on the draft ordinance, and a representative from the Sportsmen's Association gave "detailed testimony." Id. at 662.
The BoCC passed the final ordinance ("ordinance") on November 2, 2018, which was codified in ch. 8.50 of the Jefferson County Code (JCC). The ordinance was similar to the draft version, but it also included "numerous revisions" adopted in consideration of the public testimony, including "many changes requested by [the Sportsmen's Association]." Id. at 662.
The purpose of the ordinance was to "provide uniform requirements for the establishment and operation of all commercial shooting facilities in unincorporated parts of the county." Id. at 201. In keeping with this purpose, the ordinance imposed, for the first time, permitting requirements for commercial shooting facilities. For example, to obtain an operating permit, commercial shooting facilities must undergo a professional safety evaluation by a qualified shooting range evaluator. The safety evaluation ensures consistency with the NRA Range Source Book "for facility designs and institutional controls." Id. at 216. In addition, the ordinance outlined minimum standards for security, containment, and public health and environmental impacts.
The ordinance did not include the legislative finding regarding the bullet striking the residence. However, the ordinance did include other legislative findings that more broadly addressed matters of public safety.
For example, the findings in the ordinance state that the County has experienced increases in population density in areas proximate to commercial shooting ranges, and the County "has an interest in ensuring the compatibility of commercial shooting facilities with their surroundings and in minimizing potential safety hazards." Id. at 184. In addition, "public complaints about lack of safety and land use compatibility issues arising from the operation of commercial shooting facilities . . . have called on the scarce resources of Jefferson County's emergency management system and the Sheriff's office." Id. The BoCC specifically noted...
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