Most of them carry. So why don’t these homeowners north of Boise want a gun range?
About 15 miles north of Eagle on Idaho 55 is a turnoff to Summit Ridge Road, where a community of about 20 houses sits peacefully surrounded by ponds, rolling hills and sagebrush.
Terri and Larry Limberg live in one of the homes in Summit Ridge Ranch, with their dog, Grace. On a recent Friday morning, Terri Limberg brought coffee cake, coffee and ceramic mugs out to their back porch. The Limbergs were joined by about 10 neighbors who lived in the homes. They met to discuss a potential disruption to their quiet lifestyle.
Avimor, the planned community going up just north of the Eagle city limits, will host a 40-acre public shooting range about a mile from the Limbergs’ neighborhood, near the Spring Valley Summit at Pearl Road and Idaho 55. The Crowfoot Gun Range would accommodate pistols, long- and short-range rifles and archery. It would be located in Boise County near a future proposed section of Avimor.
The Limbergs and a group of about of their 30 neighbors oppose the gun range. They say it would bring increased fire danger, constant noise, traffic and safety problems.
“We moved up here for the peace and quiet, the serenity,” said Neal Vavra, a resident. “The air quality is amazing.”
Threat of fire worse than ever
The National Park Service said nearly 85% of wildland fires in the U.S. are caused by humans. Though gunfire is not the most common way, longtime Treasure Valley residents may recall a 1996 fire called the 8th Street Fire that scorched more than 22 square miles of the Boise Foothills.
A repeat of the 8th Street Fire, which was ignited when a Boise police officer shooting at the city’s gun range fired a smoking tracer bullet into dry grass, is what Skip Messersmith, a neighbor of the proposed gun range, fears.
Messersmith said he formerly was a wildland firefighter.
“I’ve spent 40 years of my life protecting people in this area,” Messersmith said in an interview. Two years ago, he said, he helped fight a fire and evacuate people from Idaho City when it was threatened by a fire. “I hope that the county commissioners look at what I have done in the community and do the same for me, to protect my home.”
“I know how fast it will travel: It can travel almost 10 to 15 chains a minute, with the proper wind,” Messersmith said. A chain is a measurement in land surveying that equals 66 feet. Eighty chains equal one mile.
“The prevailing winds around here going to come up out of the southwest, which threatens this community,” he said.
Messersmith said that if the Eagle Fire Department were prepared and in its trucks, its firefighters may be able to reach the community in 16 to 20 minutes. Eagle has the nearest fire department.
He said Eagle would not be prepared to fight a wildland fire started at the gun range. The Boise Fire Department does have the resources to fight a wildland fire, but Messersmith said it would take Boise crews over 45 minutes to reach the neighborhood.
Ryan Haskins, another neighbor, was a wildland firefighter too. He said any crew fighting a fire caused at the Crowfoot gun range would need to bring firefighting bulldozers the area. The bulldozers are used to build fire lines, a strip kept clear of flammable materials, to stop a wildfire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.
“You go as fast as you can go, but you’re moving around heavy stuff,” Haskins said. “There are standard protocols that eat up a lot of time. (Crowfoot is) not addressing any of that.”
Bill Godfrey, president of Crowfoot Range Inc., told the Idaho Statesman in an email that he would not comment before the Boise County Planning and Zoning Commission considers whether to approve or deny the gun range on Thursday, April 7.
According to the fire protection plan in Crowfoot’s application, Crowfoot said the Avimor community pond and water tower could get enough water to the gun range in three to five minutes by helicopter and nine minutes by fire truck.
Haskins and Messersmith disagree. More water would be needed than the pond and water tower could provide, they say. Messersmith said the vegetation in the area is cheat grass and sagebrush, which burns quickly.
Noise would force residents out of their homes
Terri Limberg has a brain condition that is worsened by loud noises, her husband said.
“Any percussion in my head, it’s not like once, it ricochets and ricochets in my head, just one does,” Terri Limberg said. “So 120,000 rounds a day, I’m gonna be sick.”
The Limbergs say they have lived in the hills south of Horseshoe Bend for 10 years and would have to move if Crowfoot is approved.
Vavra said he too would have to move. Vavra said his two sons are soon to be retired military personnel. One of them plans to move to Horseshoe Bend to take care of Vavra and his aging wife, but the sound of gunshots would make life there impossible for his son, Vavra said.
“He couldn’t live here if it sounds like there’s a war — he’s been in war zones,” Vavra said, tears welling in his eyes. “That’s what the problem is. And just the sound of it ... when you see him react. It’s hard.”
Crowfoot said in its application that it would try to mitigate the noise of the gun range by building berms around the shooting bays, planting additional trees, and building-sound insulated buildings at the firing line.
In response to a meeting with neighbors who expressed concerns about noise, Crowfoot limited the shooting times to six days a week instead of seven and delayed its opening by one hour.
Crowfoot conducted a sound test where volunteers shot a rifle and hand gun. The volunteers also shot the gun and rifle three times each to “mimic a ‘busy day’ at the shooting range.” Observers 1½ miles away heard all six shots.
The sound test, Terri Limberg argues, did not mimic a busy day at the range. She said Crowfoot would have at least 50 lanes and be open for free for law enforcement and 4-H groups. Crowfoot is a nonprofit with free membership to law enforcement and 4-H groups. It will be open for 4-H sponsored shooting competitions and Idaho Fish and Game hunter safety training programs.
“The range has been designed in partnership with these groups so as to provide a suitable training facility for their needs as well as the public,” the application said.
Crowfoot said in its application that it expects 10 cars on the weekdays and up to 20 on the weekends, but Limberg said it plans to have parking lots to accommodate 115 cars.
Property value reduction, traffic
According to the Crowfoot application, Avimor plans to build homes up to about a half mile from the gun range. Crowfoot said it would inform Avimor residents who move into those homes about the noise, and the home prices would reflect that.
Norm Zachary, who has lived in Summit Ridge Ranch for 16 years, said with that admission from Avimor, what should he expect to happen to his property values?
“That is exactly what they are saying: Our land values, our home values, are going to be decreased,” he said.
Susan Holland, a resident of Summit Ridge Ranch and a former real estate agent, said their home values are likely to decrease by about a third.
“If you have the investment we do and everyone else does here, that’s a lot of money,” Holland said. “That’s my retirement, things that I was kind of depending on not knowing that I would have to fight a gun range.“
The neighbors hired a lawyer, Terri Pickens Manweiler, to press their case against the development.
The neighbors do not oppose gun usage, they said, but they are concerned with the negative impacts on their ways of life.
“I believe that everybody up here does carry,” Vavra said. “It’s not a gun-range thing, it’s not a gun thing, it’s a location thing. It’s a safety thing. I don’t want to get burned out of my house.”
In a letter to the commissioners, Pickens Manweiler wrote, “this objection has nothing to do with gun control, but everything to do with preserving and protecting their safety and the safety of their property.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 3:18 PM.
