Hodgkins acknowledged Thursday that he and others have been shooting on the property, but maintains he has not violated the zoning board’s ruling.
Williamsburg shooting range owner Robert C. Hodgkins III gestures during an appearance in Northampton District Court last year,WILLIAMSBURG – A local shooting range is back in the legal cross-hairs as zoning officials are revisiting a ban on weapons fire that both sides say is unenforceable.
Neighbors of the property at 74 Village Hill Road are up in arms after what one described as seven hours of “unbearable” shooting and explosions on the property Wednesday.
“The noise was so loud, my house was shaking,” said Erica Verrilo, who lives on nearby Nichols Road.
In February, reacting to complaints from Verrilo and other abutters, the town’s zoning board voted to ban commercial and group use of the shooting range, along with the use of automatic weapons. The land is owned by the Hodgkins family, which has used part of it for shooting since the 1930s. For years, the range co-existed peacefully with the neighborhood, but abutters say the situation began to change several years ago after Robert Hodgkins, who co-owned the property with his brother Thomas C. Hodgkins, died and left his half to his three children.
At the zoning hearing in February, neighbors maintained that Robert C. Hodgkins III, one of the late Robert Hodgkins’ children, was using the range commercially in connection with a security company he owns in New Hampshire. Several people told the board that, instead of the rifle and shotgun fire they tolerated for decades, they were being subjected to automatic weapsons fire and explosions. A lawyer representing Verrilo even played videos from the Web sites of a weapons dealer that purportedly showed people firing automatic weapons on the land.
The zoning board’s decision limited use of the range to the level of use in 2003, when the current zoning went into effect, and said shooting could only occur between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Verrilo said she heard only single-shot fire following the ruling. Beginning on July 4, however, she began hearing the sound of automatic weapons again, she said. It climaxed with seven hours of heavy gunfire on Wednesday, according to Verrilo.
“I called the police more than once,” she said.
Verrilo also called Brenda Church, the zoning enforcement officer for Williamsburg. Church works in the office of the Northampton Building Department, which assumed responsibility for zoning enforcement in Williamsburg last year. The Northampton Building Commissioner, who is also the Williamsburg building commissioner, is reportedly on vacation and is not scheduled to return until August.
Verrilo said that, after speaking with Church, she believes the complainants must start the process all over again.
“The zoning order is incomprehensible,” she said. “It doesn’t speak to the 2003 levels.”
Although she has not yet studied the Williamsburg zoning order, Church said, “It does seem not to be laid out clearly.”
Church said she has received complaints from three separate parties about the noise on Wednesday but added that she needs to have them in writing before she can proceed.
Hodgkins acknowledged Thursday that he and others have been shooting on the property, but maintains he has not violated the zoning board’s ruling.
“What they put out is unenforceable,” he said. “As long as I’m not breaking any laws, I don’t see the problem.”
In April, Hodgkins said he would put the property up for sale because he was weary of the zoning board’s “idiocy.” He said Thursday that his family has sold a small piece to a local farm, but the rest remains on the market for $795,000. Hodgkins called complains about the recent gunfire “pouting” on the part of neighbors.