Residents are suing Palmetto Bluff over the constant sound of gunshots

A group of Palmetto Bluff residents who bought their properties with the expectation of joining a quiet and peaceful community are claiming they were grossly misguided after the community’s shooting club was built without their consent.

The seven residents are suing Palmetto Bluff Development and Montage Hotels & Resorts, claiming that the Palmetto Bluff Shooting Club’s “close proximity” to their properties “constitutes an unreasonable interference” with “the use and enjoyment of their land,” the suit states.

The residents bought property in the Longfield Farms subdivision of Palmetto Bluff prior to February 2015 and live there full-time.

“Many or all of my clients didn’t know (the shooting club) would be formed regardless,” said Neil Thomson, the residents’ attorney, who filed the lawsuit earlier this month. “And certainly they didn’t know it would be formed right by their properties.”

The Palmetto Bluff Shooting Club opened as an amenity for Palmetto Bluff property owners and Montage Palmetto Bluff resort guests in March 2015.

The shooting club is open Wednesday through Sunday. It offers 13 sporting clay shooting stations, and the course weaves through 40 acres of woodland off Laurel Oak Way.

“Hopefully people won’t notice it’s here,” David Sewell, Crescent Communities director of development, told The Island Packet in January 2015. “We were very selective with what trees were taken down. We wanted to be subordinate to the landscape.”

The course is “designed to be subordinate to the landscape while providing a fun and challenging recreational shooting environment for the novice through advanced shooter,” according to its website.

The lawsuit, which was filed May 4, alleges that more than 170 members belong to the shooting club. On a daily basis, more than 1,000 rounds are fired and typically more than 5,000 rounds are fired on weekends or during special events, according to the lawsuit

The residents argue that the shooting club has created “excessive and incessant noise pollution,” “diminution in value and marketability of their properties,” a “change in character of Longfield Farms subdivision” and “an interference with the nature and purpose of the previously established equestrian center and trails,” the suit states.

The residents also claim they were never consulted about nor did they give consent to the selection of location or opening of the shooting club, according to the lawsuit

The lawsuit states that Palmetto Bluff owed residents “a duty of care to see that truthful information was communicated,” but it failed to disclose or notify any plans of the forthcoming shooting club operations to residents at relevant points in time.

The residents claim to have undertaken certain noise abatement measures to try and remedy the noise pollution, but the measures have been inadequate or ineffective, the lawsuit states.

“Plaintiffs continue to be damaged and harmed by the noise disturbance and noise pollution from the shooting range,” the lawsuit states.

Residents underwent efforts to negotiate and mediate with representatives of the shooting club, “but that did not result in alleviating or fixing the problem,” Thomson said.

The residents have demanded a jury trial.

They are seeking actual damages, punitive damages and any other legal or equitable remedies available to them. They are also asking for the permanent closing of the shooting club in its current location, the lawsuit states.

The suit will not be placed in front of a jury until at least 2018, according to Thomson.

Efforts to reach the Palmetto Bluff Shooting Club, Palmetto Bluff Development and Montage Hotels & Resorts were unsuccessful.

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Residents are suing Palmetto Bluff over the constant sound of gunshots."