Opponents of Gun Club Feel Complaints Falling on Deaf Ears

For 70 years, a private gun club has been nestled in a wooded area on 86 acres in Mahopac, bordering the Town of Somers.

The sounds of gunfire from experienced and novice sharpshooters taking aim at stationary targets at the Willow Wood Country Club have been heard for decades, according to longtime residents, but have escalated since a new 16-station skeet disc shooting course was built several years ago.

The course first opened about six years ago without necessary approvals from the Town of Carmel, was shut down, and then reopened after receiving the go-ahead from the Planning Board in May 2023.

“There are times where it felt like a war zone,” said Patricia Perez, a 30-year resident of Union Valley Road in Mahopac. “The noise coming in the house is pretty unbearable. We hear it all the time. It gets worse when the weather is warm.”

Jack Stein, who has lived in one of the 89 units in Condo 22 at Heritage Hills in Somers for 20 years, a short distance from the club, has taken the lead in trying to silence what he calls the “nightmare.”

“It’s like an onion with a lot of layers,” Stein said recently from his home. “The complaint is that the new 16 station skeet disc shooting course is producing a much louder volume of noise and far greater frequency of noise. With the additional stations, removal of hundreds of trees, the shotguns being aimed up into the air and several shooting stations are now firing directly in the direction of Condo 22, the problem has become overwhelming.”

Stein, 80, said one of the shooting stations is only 132 feet away from the Condo 22 property line, and another is about 173 feet away, creating a dangerous situation for residents.

“I’m scared to walk up there,” said Stein. “They’re robbing me of my ability to use my property for fear of being shot.”

Perez expressed similar fears, saying, “I’m afraid of getting shot. It’s preventing us from enjoying our own home. They’re not good neighbors.”

Willow Wood, located off Union Valley Road, is open year-round to its approximately 200 members. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the winter months and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the year.

George Calgagnini, president and attorney of Willow Wood, along with being an active participant at the club, maintained the noise complaints were “totally, completely, 100 percent exaggerated.” He said the club has spent $30,000 on noise studies.

“They just don’t like the fact that there is a gun club there. They never have and they never will,” Calgagnini asserted.

In terms of safety, Calgagnini stressed there are significant buffer zones between the club and surrounding properties and said there has never been a gun accident in the history of Willow Wood.

“There are no shots that ever leave the Willow Wood club,” he said. “If you’re not on our property, you’re 100 percent, 1,000 percent safe. The buffer area was set up before Heritage Hills was established.”

Environmental concerns have also been raised about the club, with Stein, Perez and others feeling the Planning Board failed to adequately study the issues by declaring a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

The Somers Land Trust filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the Planning Board, looking to have the approval for the expanded course negated over what it believed was a faulty environmental review. 

Somers Supervisor Robert Scorrano penned four separate letters to the Carmel Planning Board in 2023 while the project was being reviewed, calling sporting clay fragments that were found on Heritage Hills property “a severe issue.”

“With your board’s approval of the further expansion, the Heritage Hills owners will be subject to further contamination from lead and clay fragments, a potentially vast clean-up risk, and a clear violation of property rights for Somers residents,” Scorrano stated in a May 31, 2023 correspondence.

Scorrano stated last week in an email to Examiner Media that he has received “several complaints” about the noise and property value related to Willow Wood.

Meanwhile, Carmel Supervisor Michael Cazzari stated in a recent text town officials are “frequently contacted by residents of Somers,” but attorneys have advised them “not to engage” with the complainants, citing the ongoing litigation.

Calgagnini said the Somers Land Trust was currently appealing an April 2024 court decision that favored the Planning Board, a process he estimated could take two years. Michael Barnhart, president of the Somers Land Trust, could not be reached for comment.

He said Willow Wood has spent thousands of dollars on environmental measures and is currently seeking permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to install a “shot curtain” 80 yards in front of the clay stations.

“We’ve been very proactive,” Calgagnini said.

Perez and Stein were critical of the lack of response from Carmel officials.

“We are homeowners in the Town of Carmel. We deserve to enjoy our property. They don’t seem to be very concerned about our quality of life,” Perez said. “I don’t feel they’re responsive to our concerns at all.”

“The town did not investigate the way it should have,” Stein said. “This has nothing to do with guns. I was in the Army. They (gun club) cut corners and the town let them cut corners. It’s a matter of simple right and wrong.”