LITCHFIELD – Litchfield Superior Court Judge Vincent Roche has ruled in favor of the neighbors challenging the commercialization of their residential neighborhood by the White Oak Gun Club in the Milton section of Litchfield. He has ordered that the subpoenas issued to the White Oak Gun Club are valid and that those who were subpoenaed must appear before the Litchfield Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) with documents relevant to the proceedings.
Judge Roche’s ruling was the result of legal arguments between lawyers for the neighbors and for the Cropsey family, which owns the White Oak Gun Club, as well as for Nick Boyden, manager of the White Oak Gun Club. Atty. Pearly Grimes, representing the Cropseys, Boyden and the White Oak Gun Club, had refused to allow his clients to testify at an Oct. 7 ZBA public hearing in response to the subpoenas issued by the neighbors’ lawyers. This forced the neighbors to ask a Superior Court judge to settle the issue of the validity of the subpoenas.
In a decision handed down Monday, Nov. 24, Judge Roche ruled that the seven subpoenas the neighbors’ lawyers issued are valid and that the Cropseys and Boyden must appear before the ZBA as long as the questions they are asked and the documents requested are relevant to the claim that the White Oak Gun Club is a commercial organization operating illegally in a residential neighborhood. Likewise, he ruled that the 44 documents about the White Oak Gun Club and the Cropsey property that the neighbors are seeking must be produced to the extent that they are relevant. The judge held that it will be up to the chairman of the ZBA to decide on an item-by-item basis whether the testimony and the 44 documents subpoenaed are relevant to any issue before the ZBA.
“This is good news,” said Earle Taylor, one of the neighbors challenging the White Oak Gun Club. “This means we will finally be able to prove to the ZBA that the White Oak Gun Club is not a continuation of the limited shooting activity that the late Buck Cropsey enjoyed; that it’s a commercial enterprise operating illegally and ruining the tranquility of our otherwise quiet, residential neighborhood here in Milton.”
The ZBA will decide when to schedule the continuation of the Oct. 7 public hearing, but speculation is that it will likely be sometime in mid-December.
The issue stems from the creation of the White Oak Gun Club in 2004. Gunshots can frequently be heard, resulting in many neighbors comparing it to the sounds of a war zone.
Matt Speck, Litchfield’s zoning enforcement officer, wrote a report about the issue earlier this year, claiming that the club was a non-conforming use because the late Buck Cropsey, the original owner of the property at 116 Blue Swamp Road, used to shoot skeet and trap there before the adoption of zoning in 1970. However, the neighbors testified at the Oct. 7 ZBA hearing that the activity at the White Oak Gun Club is not the same as when Buck Cropsey used to shoot skeet. Instead of just a couple of hours on Sunday mornings, the paid membership-driven White Oak Gun Club has significantly intensified the activity with gunshots heard on any day of the week and any time of day.
The Litchfield Planning & Zoning Commission accepted Speck’s report this past summer, essentially allowing the illegal establishment of a commercial operation in a residential zone.
The neighbors subsequently appealed that action to the ZBA, leading to the expected continuation of the ZBA hearing sometime in December
ProtectLitchfield.org consists of a group of neighbors in Litchfield who are concerned that the establishment of a commercial development in a residential neighborhood could set a precedent and open the way for other commercial businesses locating in other residential neighborhoods in town.
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