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The owners of Quail Ridge Sporting Club are appealing rulings by the Rockbridge County Board of Zoning Appeals that upheld the zoning administrator’s determinations that certain activities at the club’s shooting range are out of compliance with the county’s zoning regulations.
The appeals by Scott and Crystal Guise were filed in Rockbridge Circuit Court on Aug. 18. The Guises contend that each of the three rulings by the BZA that upheld determinations made by Zoning Administrator Chris Slaydon were “plainly wrong and in violation of the letter, purpose and intent of the regulations and in violation of the applicable provisions of the Code of Virginia and of the common law, and [were] contrary to the evidence in the record before the BZA.”
The Guises ask that the court “reverse the decision[s] of the Board of Zoning Appeals in this matter and find that Rockbridge County, through its zoning administrator, acted with malice and that the court allow the petitioners their costs and attorneys’ fees as provided by [a previous judicial ruling].”
The earlier ruling referenced by the Guises was by Rockbridge County Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Dryer on Oct. 16, 2019, that was incorporated into a final order Dryer entered on Nov. 12, 2019. In that ruling, the court determined that the nonconforming, grandfathered uses at the Quail Ridge Sporting Club included not only sporting clays with shot guns but also commercial rifle and pistol shooting. The county appealed this ruling but it was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court.
Responding to continuing complaints of neighbors over activities at Quail Ridge earlier this year, Slaydon sent letters to the Guises on May 12 notifying them of zoning violations allegedly occurring at the shooting range. Slaydon notified the Guises that grandfathered nonconforming uses at the shooting range (1) do not include holding/ hosting special events (weddings, receptions and reunions) and (2) do not include the ability to develop and operate a private school/paramilitary training facility; and (3) that the current practices at the outdoor shooting range have impermissibly increased and require a special exception permit to continue operating at this scale.
The Guises appealed Slaydon’s determinations to the BZA. At a hearing on July 19, the BZA upheld all three of the zoning administrator’s determinations.
Quail Ridge Sporting Club is located on the east side of Murat Road (Va. 675) approximately 0.67-of-a-mile north of the intersection of Murat Road and Collierstown Road (Va. 251).
Representing the Guises in their continuing appeals is Timothy E. Kirtner of the law firm Gilmer, Sadler, Ingram, Sutherland & Hutton LLP in Pulaski.
