The High Plains Shooting Range proposed by Supervisor Patrick Jones is still not a done deal as the neighbors who will be affected by it have taken Shasta County and the Board of Supervisors to court over the inadequacies of the project as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) The neighbors have stated that the county should have developed a full Environmental Impact Report for the project instead of the lower standard of a Mitigated Negative Declaration. The lawsuit also states birds, plants, and vernal pools were all grossly inadequate.
SEA also sent a letter to the Shasta County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors that we found the biological review severely lacking and that the required protocols of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife CDFW were not followed. Many other groups and individuals sent in letters and made statements at the Board of Supervisor hearings opposing the project.
The neighbors have pooled their money together and hired Don Mooney, a CEQA attorney from Davis, pooling several thousand dollars each together and also started a GoFundMe site where they have collected almost $16,000. However, this lawsuit could easily cost over $30,000. The neighbors are reaching out to others who are opposed to this gun range to donate to their GoFundMe site HERE. They stated all excess funds, if any, would be donated to local environmental groups. If you have a large amount you want to donate and don’t feel comfortable donating via GoFundMe, you can send in donations directly via check made out to their attorney Don Mooney. For mailing info, email NoMillvilleGunRange@gmail.com, and they will give you the attorney’s address.
Almost all of the people who live in the area are not wealthy, most are working people or retired who bought the land because it was cheap and a quiet rural country area to build their homes and raise children. They did not expect this to become a commercial gun range with shooting contests of up to 500 people per event and overnight RV camping. The project will have handgun ranges, skeet shooting, and a high-powered rifle range. While currently only on 150 acres of land, like many of these projects such as the Hawes Ranch, they will just grow.
This is an important case because, with the current Board of Supervisors, it seems the Planning Commission is choosing to be quite lenient when approving some projects. If successful, this will make the county more likely to strictly follow CEQA. This may also make the City or Redding take note when approving massive oak tree removal for various projects in the area such as the great oak tree removal on what was once a beautiful entrance to Redding on 1-5.