Game farm sues to add shooting range

[Go Big Red!]

Game farm sues to add shooting range

By Russell Plummer • For Wisconsinoutdoorfun.com • March 2, 2011

A local business is suing the Town of Byron in an attempt to add a skeet, trap and sporting clay range.

Hunter's Point, W6709 County Trunk F, runs game farm activities, including raising and hunting of birds like pheasants, bobwhite quail and partridge.

Hunter's Point's attorney, John Kelly of the Oshkosh law firm of Dempsey, Williamson, Kelly & Hertel, says the property has been lawfully used and guns have been discharged on the property since 1998.

Kelly said Byron denied Hunter's Point a special use permit to operate a shooting range on the property, a move that he says is not legal due to a Wisconsin statute that allows for expansion, enhancement or improvement to a sport shooting range.

On Monday, Circuit Court Judge Peter Grimm was assigned to the civil case.

Kelly is seeking a declaratory judgment that would label his client's property as a "sport shooting range" and for Grimm to declare that the Town of Byron has no jurisdiction to restrict the addition.

Kelly said the case boils down to how Grimm interprets the statute.

John St. Peter, the lawyer for the Town of Byron, said late Tuesday that the business does not classify as a shooting range.

"The town disagrees with the lawsuit and will defend it," St. Peter said. "The benefit of that statute does not apply to this operation."

Kelly said he understands there are neighbors of the business concerned about the amount of gunshots increasing.

"I understand that (increased shooting) is the concern, and I understand there is a movement to try and block this," Kelly said. "What happened was the plaintiffs in the action applied for a special use permit a number of years ago and were turned down. They didn't know about (the state statute) until they came to me.

"Basically, the issue comes down to if Hunter's Point is a sport shooting range. We think it clearly is and has been for at least 10 years," he later added.

No future court date has been scheduled.