SULTAN — An outdoor recreation club for nudists agreed last month to dismiss its lawsuit challenging state’s transfer of trust lands to Snohomish County for a future gun range.
While letting the state off the hook, Lake Bronson Associates has vowed to keep close watch on Snohomish County and its plans to build a public shooting range along Sultan Basin Road. Concerns about noise and environmental damage remain for the club and other neighbors.
“We’re going to take the fight to the county and hold the county’s feet to the fire,” said Earl Calkins, Lake Bronson’s board president.
For decades, shooting enthusiasts have pushed for a gun range in this forested area northeast of Sultan.
Those plans received a boost last year when the county asked the state Department of Natural Resources to reconvey 150 acres of state trust land for a future county park. In December, the state agreed. The county made clear it planned to use the land for a public shooting range, but there is no funding and it would take years to build.
Lake Bronson Associates filed its lawsuit in January in King County Superior Court. Named as defendants were the Department of Natural Resources, Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, the state’s Board of Natural Resources and Snohomish County.
The dismissal was filed April 13.
“They chose to voluntarily dismiss their suit,” said Jason Cummings, Snohomish County’s chief civil deputy prosecutor.
Under terms of the dismissal, the county isn’t allowed to receive the deed to land until after Aug. 1. The club also acknowledged that the DNR followed state law in transferring the land back to the county.
Though the lawsuit has gone away, Calkins said that have the effect of making county officials more attentive to neighbors who might be affected by the range.
“That’s one thing positive about the suit, is that it did get their attention,” he said.
Future challenges to the project could arise during the permitting process for the range, particularly during environmental studies, he said.
The nudist group has stressed that it isn’t anti-gun and doesn’t oppose the idea of a public range. Its members just don’t want a range close by if it interferes with the tranquility of their lakeside camp about a mile away.
“If they could show us no impact on us, we don’t have a complaint and we won’t complain,” Calkins said.
For now, Calkins said he and others would withhold judgment and see what happens.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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