® - Sunday, March 14, 1993 - Nortn Shore News

Forest shooting

ranges raise ire
of NV residents

GVRD fields Lynn Valley calls

LYNN VALLEY residents are once again attempting to
muzzle the noise coming from two shooting ranges in the

Seymour Demonstration Forest.

Both ranges, the Pacific
Shooters Association (PSA) and
the North Shore Skeet Club
(NSSC), are located within 100
fect (30.4 m) of each other in the
forest.

A complaint {etter written by
Lynn Valley resident Ron Beesley
wus heard at a Thursday meeting
of the Greater Vancouver
Regional District's (GVRD) water
committee.

The GVRD. oversees the forest
and also holds the leases on the
two shooting range sites.

In his letter, Beesley stated that
the gunfire can be heard echoing
through Lynn Canyon Park and
by visitors and hikers using the
demonstration forest.

“The gunfire noise is so loud
that it can be heard 1.5 kilometres
from the gun club sites by resi-
dents inside their homes,” Beesley
stated. “This gunfire noise does
not create a. pleasant environment
and imposes on the community.’

Beesley said the noise was heard
all day Saturday, Jan. 23, and
Sunday, Jan. 24, and throughout
the morning of ‘Wednesday, Jan.
27.—
This complaipt follows an
earlier one from another resident,
Clive Cameron, in April 1992,
bringing the total of GVRD-
recorded complaints to two in a
three-year period.

While the water committee filed
Cameron's complaint, it also
directed GVRD staff to keep it in-
formed of future complaints,

Following the second complaint,
GVRD water and construction
manager John Morse sent a letter
to the shooting associations Feb.
..24, informing them of the most
_recent complaint and reminding
them of the lease conditions.

“If the lessee’s activities do not
meet municipal noise bylaw min-
imum standards, the lessce shall
cease and desist from the activity

By Cheryl Ziola

Contributing Writer

ing enforced ... can use the politi-
cal process ... and ... go through
council. { don’t really see us jas
being the enforcement tool.”
Asked whether the GVRD could
revoke the lease agreements for
the shooting ranges, which expire
in 2004, Morse said he didn't
know. :
But municipal bylaws and the
court system would determine any
penalty, Morse said, adding that
he currently has no concerns
about renewing those leases, '
Bill Kimmett, a North Shore
Health environmental
director, said a noise contro! of-
ficer was dispatched to the area to

measure noise decibels on March °

7.

That day was chosen because it
happened to be one of the PSA's
most heavily used days, he said.

But ‘no audible noise was
detected on the meter, he said,
explaining that any noise ¢x-
ceeding 55 decibels out of the
shooting range boundaries would
contravene the bylaw,

“So the PSA are in
shape," Kimumiett said.

As for the currently closed skeet
chib, Kimmett said it hosted an
international competition last Jan.
23 and 24, the dates in question.

Kimmett said the club plans to
open again on infrequent Sundays
between 10 a.m, and 4 p.m.

‘And on one of those Sundays,
Kimmett promised a noise control
officer will be on hand to measure
skeet club noise tevels,

Should one of the shooting
ranges be found contravening the
bylaw, they face fines ranging
from’ $100 to $2,000, Kimmett
said.

good

until such noise is brought below |

‘the municipal standards,’ Morse
wrote,

In a phone interview, Morse.
told the News that Beesley must
now go through niunicipal bylaw :
channels to get further action on’
his complaint.

“Citizens that. are complaining:
vse. frustrated about bylaws not be-

in NV riding
NORTH VANCOUVER | lawyer
‘and community activist Mobina
Jaffer will be acclaimed ag the
federal Liberal candidate for ‘the
North Vancouver riding at a can-
didate selection meeting to be held
today at 2 p.m. at the Coach
House Inn, 700 Old Lillooet Rd.,
North Vancouver.

All other candidates have drop-
ped out of the nomination race.

Jaffer is known for her work on
domestic violence and with im-
migrant women.

She chaired the B.C. Task
Force on Family Violence ‘and
founded .the Association of Im-
migrant and Visible Minority
Women of B.C. and has been a
member of the federal Liberal
party’s national executive council.

Jaffer is presently a member of
the Canada-wide Canadian panel
on Violence Against Women.

A North Vancouver resident for
17 years, Jaffer is married with
two children.

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