Judge denies family's attempt to close down local shooting range

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January 09, 2017 - 8:00 PM

KELOWNA – A Kelowna family says after more than two decades of living next door to a shooting range they’ve had enough and it should be shut down.

Phillip Potts has lived next door to the Kelowna and District Fish and Game Club since purchasing the 20 acre parcel of land on Casorso Road in 1990. According to a judgement released last week, it wasn’t until 2002 that he first complained about the noise to the City of Kelowna. He then waited another nine years before seeking damages and a temporary injunction from the court pending trial of the issue.

“The current application was filed in May 2011. That is not a typo,” Justice Peter Rogers writes. “The application before the court today was filed more than five years ago.”

In his decision to deny the injunction, Rogers acknowledged that the Potts family should have known that gunshots would likely be heard next to a shooting range and they had plenty of time to seek resolution of the issue.

“The defendant has been in operation for decades,” he writes. “It acquired the subject land in 1956. It has, over the years, invested heavily in facilities for its members’ use. The majority of activity on the defendant’s property involves outdoor use of firearms.

“I find that an interim injunction would serve a single plaintiff’s interests at the expense of the perfectly legal and legitimate sporting interests of a great many members of the defendant society. The financial impact on the defendant of an interim injunction would be out of all proportion to the good served by it.”

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