Shooting range opposed by neighbours
The establishment of a shooting range in the top of the south has neighbours up in arms.
In late 2019, Carl and Natalia McAllansmith opened Peak View Range, a shooting range, on their property. They also run the upmarket Peak View Retreat accommodation on the site, which is in the Whangamoa area.
Neighbours have complained to the council about the range.
Kendall Smart said his concerns about the environmental impact of the range have been ignored, and he was worried the increased traffic on the shared rural driveway used to access the range was going to leave residents out of pocket.
He was also upset about noise and a potential drop in land values.
‘‘We bought rural to live the dream, to live in a piece of paradise, but it’s not paradise anymore,’’ Smart said. ‘‘How can this happen without getting neighbours’ consent?’’
Smart said the shooting range could have a financial impact on the eight properties that share the 4WD accessway, who were all responsible for its maintenance.
Noise has also been a subject of contention. On the day of a shooting competition in November 2021, Smart recorded 257 gunshots heard from outside his house between 8.35am and 11am.
‘‘I’m two kilometres away, and they’re saying that the noise shouldn’t affect me,’’ he said.
‘‘It may not be excessively loud, but boy, it’s annoying.’’
He said he and other neighbours were also worried about lead shot going into the ground on a site that is 160 metres from the Whangamoa River.
The McAllansmiths don’t need consent for the range under planning rules, but don’t have consent for the accessway.
In April, the McAllansmiths lodged an application for retroactive consent for the access road for members and customers to access Peak View Range via Hori Bay Rd and Lower Flowers Rd.
Carl said Peak View Range has been operating since late 2019 and earned a Silver Qualmark NZ Tourism Award in 2021.
The McAllansmiths said they owned three of the eight shares of the road and ‘‘contribute above and beyond in organising and undertaking road maintenance’’.
The range’s two closest neighbours had advised on numerous occasions they did not hear any noise from the range, he said.
In addition, Carl said they had the range acoustically mapped to ensure that it was compliant with the rural noise rules for both daytime and night shooting.
Because the police banned rifle alternatives in 2019, the use of lead projectiles was ‘‘the only option’’ in New Zealand, he said.
But Carl said the amount of lead used was ‘‘negligible’’ when compared to the amount dropped by vehicles on the adjacent highway, by wheel weights for example.
The range was currently a participant in a NMIT lead study investigating the effects of lead on hunted meat consumption, he said.
Nelson City Council group manager environmental management Clare Barton said they had been contacted by neighbours of Peak View Range on a number of occasions, and had responded either via phone call or email to all complaints received.
Gun ranges were now regulated under the Arms Legislation Act and this required them to ensure they were certified under a process run by NZ Police, she said.
The Peak View Gun Range was located in a Rural Zone which under the current Nelson Regional Management Plan allowed for commercial activities up to 300m2 in area, provided they comply with other districtwide rules, such as noise and access standards.
In 2021, following a complaint from a neighbour, the council investigated Peak View Range and discovered it did not have the required access to run as a commercial business. The owner of Peak View was required to retrospectively apply for resource consent.
Barton said the council had received that application and had asked the applicant for more information on the frequency of use of the access road to determine whether notification is necessary.
While the issue for the consent revolved around the access to the property, the council was also obtaining more information about the used rounds and any discharge of contaminants to the land, and if there were any concerns about noise.
‘‘There is a general duty under the Resource Management Act to avoid unreasonable noise and to avoid, remedy or mitigate other adverse effects,’’ Barton said.