Golden – Kittredge and Arvada residents have complained about hunters on private property shooting shotgun pellets that hit their homes and yards, but county officials said Wednesday there is little a “no-shoot zone” would do.
“I think somebody can be hurt,” said Fred Tilson, who lives in an Arvada subdivision where pellets have whizzed overhead, scared dogs and children, and even brought down a goose in a neighbor’s yard.
Currently, it is legal to discharge a firearm on private property in unincorporated Jefferson County as long as the projectiles don’t leave the property.
County commissioners declined to hold a public hearing on creating “no-shoot zones” near Quaker Street between West 76th and West 80th avenues – an unincorporated area abutting three new Arvada subdivisions – and from Troublesome Gulch Road to Meyer Gulch on both sides of Colorado 74 in Kittredge.
In both communities, people have moved into areas where private landowners have hunted on their own property.
“This was a rural area, and the city has grown around it,” planning director Tim Carl said of the Arvada situation.
Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink said patrolling would be difficult.
Tilson said the shooting goes on before dawn nearly every day during goose season, which runs from November to February.
Last fall, Tilson said he heard shotgun pellets hitting the house across the street as he washed his car and two young children rode their bikes in the street.
Tilson said that a short time later, with the kids watching, “a goose flops out of the sky.” The hunter walked over, picked up the dead goose, flung it over his shoulder and walked away, he said.
“You just can’t have that kind of shooting right in people’s yards,” Tilson said.
As for Kittredge, Carl said the homeowner association for the Sunset Ridge subdivision “feels the character and density” have changed, making nearby hunting dangerous.
At $100, fines in a no-shoot zone would be similar to current penalties, said County Attorney Frank Hutfless, who added, “I don’t know what you gain by having a no-shoot zone.”
Board members directed Carl to tell the Arvada and Kittredge residents that they’re concerned, but after getting legal and law enforcement input, they believe the zones would not be effective.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
