Lonaconing Trap Club, Inc. v. Maryland Department of the Environment

978 A.2d 702, 410 Md. 326, 2009 Md. LEXIS 629
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedAugust 26, 2009
Docket139, September Term, 2008
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 978 A.2d 702 (Lonaconing Trap Club, Inc. v. Maryland Department of the Environment) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lonaconing Trap Club, Inc. v. Maryland Department of the Environment, 978 A.2d 702, 410 Md. 326, 2009 Md. LEXIS 629 (Md. 2009).

Opinions

[330]*330HARRELL, J.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? 1 An existentialist likely would decline to confront the riddle because human impact expressly is excluded by the query.2 No philosophers they, the Maryland Department of the Environment, however, apparently would entertain something approaching the obverse of the question: If firearms are fired in a rural area of Allegany County before 1 January 2005, some neighbors complain, and the noise exceeds the relevant prevailing ambient noise standards, why can’t we regulate the loudness of the sound? Supplying an answer to this admittedly unphilosophical question is our task in this case.

Maryland Code (2007 Repl.Vol.), Environment Article, § 3-401(c),3 in relevant part, limits the authority of the Maryland Department of the Environment (“MDE”) to adopt “noise control rules and regulations [that] ... prohibit trapshooting, skeetshooting, or other target shooting between the hours of 9 a.m. and 10 p.m.” in certain counties. In 2005, the General Assembly added paragraph (6) to § 3-401(c), exempting from such regulations “shooting sports clubs” in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Garrett, and Washington counties, provided the clubs were “chartered and in operation as of January 1, 2005.” The Legislature, however, created an exclusion to the exemption, allowing MDE to continue enforcing noise control regulations [331]*331on clubs that the agency “determines were not in compliance [with existing MDE regulations] as of January 1, 2005.”

Petitioner, Lonaconing Trap Club, Inc. (“Lonaconing”), is a shooting sports club in Allegany County that has existed as such for over 40 years. As of 1 January 2005, however, it was determined not to be compliant with an existing MDE noise regulation prohibiting human-initiated activity that causes sounds greater than 60 decibels to be heard on adjacent residential property during daylight hours.4 Lonaconing here challenges a judgment of the Circuit Court for Allegany County enjoining the club from trapshooting on its property until it complies with that regulation. The club claims that § 3-401 (c)(6) violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 24 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights by distinguishing arbitrarily between shooting sports clubs in different counties and by discriminating arbitrarily against clubs that MDE determines were not compliant with the agency’s regulations as of 1 January 2005. For reasons we shall explain, we hold that § 3-401(c)(6) does not run afoul of the club’s Federal or State constitutional rights to equal protection.

I.

Lonaconing operates on a 2.8 acre lot on Water Station Road in a rural area of Allegany County. Its property has been used in some capacity as a shooting range since the 1930s. Lonaconing, formed in 1968, began a summer shooting league in 1970; the club incorporated in 1972. According to the record, it has approximately eighty members, 30 of whom [332]*332participate in a shooting league at the club. Lonaconing’s shooting schedule has remained more or less the same since 1968. During its twenty-two week annual shooting season, lasting from April to September, club members engage in trapshooting5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.6

MDE is the State agency responsible for enforcing, among other things, environmental noise standards, sound level limits, and noise control rules.7 In 2003, Frances Nolan and Patricia Russell, whose residences are on properties adjacent to Lonaconing’s, complained to MDE about the noise generated by Lonaconing’s shooting activities.8 In April 2003, pursuant to the complaints, David Jarinko, the agency’s noise control and acoustic enforcement specialist, conducted tests to [333]*333measure the sound levels heard on Nolan’s property during Lonaconing’s regularly scheduled shooting activities. Measuring from her property boundary (which is approximately 300 feet from Lonaconing’s firing line) for a duration of fifteen minutes, Jarinko determined that the received gunshot sounds generally were eighty decibels or higher. MDE regulations prohibit sounds that register higher than 60 decibels on adjoining residential property. Approximately two months later, Jarinko’s supervisor, George Harman, conducted additional sound measurements with comparable results.

Harman visited with Lonaconing’s leadership on 26 June 2003 and presented the agency’s test results to the club’s President, Edward Evans. Harman explained that Lonaconing’s shooting activities exceeded the permitted decibel limitation and that the club was subject potentially to fines. Following the meeting, Harman sent a letter, dated 27 June 2003, to Evans conveying MDE’s desire to work with the club towards an amiable solution. Lonaconing continued its shooting activities, prompting more complaints to MDE from Nolan and Russell. Over the next year and a half, MDE and Lonaconing attempted to resolve the matter, but were unable to do so.9 Accordingly, on 10 November 2004, Harman sent another letter to Evans reiterating that Lonaconing was exceeding [334]*334permitted decibel limitations and informing him that the club had until 29 November 2004 to achieve compliance or submit a plan for becoming compliant. The letter further warned that MDE would initiate an enforcement action against Lonaconing if any shooting activity occurred on club property after 29 November 2004, unless the club had an MDE-approved plan for compliance. Presumably due to Harman’s letter, Lonaconing ceased its shooting activities in December 2004. In March 2005, Harman sent yet another letter to Evans, reiterating MDE’s willingness to work with Lonaconing to develop a plan for compliance.

Meanwhile, during the 2005 legislative session in Annapolis, the General Assembly enacted chapter 394, 2005 Md. Laws 1834-37, which, in main part, exempted existing shooting sports clubs in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Garrett, and Washington counties from noise control regulations prohibiting trapshooting and other forms of target shooting. The General Assembly, however, chose not to extend the exemption to clubs that MDE determined were not “in compliance” as of 1 January 2005 with existing MDE regulations. Chapter 394, 2005 Md. Laws 1834-37, is codified as § 3—401(c)(6).10

In April 2005, Lonaconing resumed its regularly scheduled shooting activities. One month later, MDE conducted additional sound measurements on the Nolan and Russell properties. Each test yielded results exceeding 80 decibels. That same day, the agency initiated against Lonaconing an action in the Circuit Court for Allegany County, seeking civil penalties and an injunction prohibiting Lonaconing from engaging in shooting activities on its property until it complied with the 60 decibel limitation established in the regulations.

At the evidentiary hearing in the trial court, Dr. George Lutz testified for MDE as an expert witness in the fields of psychology and sound management. Dr. Lutz stated that he [335]*335authored the noise control guidelines adopted by the U.S. Army for its small arms ranges.

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Lonaconing Trap Club, Inc. v. Maryland Department of the Environment
978 A.2d 702 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
978 A.2d 702, 410 Md. 326, 2009 Md. LEXIS 629, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lonaconing-trap-club-inc-v-maryland-department-of-the-environment-md-2009.