PORT TOWNSEND — With Jefferson County Commissioner Phil Johnson holding firm to opposing expansion of the Paradise Bay no-shooting zone, the county commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the wider zone Monday.
“I still feel the same way about the substantial amount of acreage,” Johnson, D-Port Townsend, told fellow Commissioners John Austin, D-Port Ludlow, and David Sullivan, D-Cape George.
The approval concludes two years of study and debate over the no-shoot zone.
Sullivan said he was more concerned about residential neighborhoods around the perimeter of the no-shooting zone.
The commissioners on March 24, with Johnson opposed, expanded the Teal Lake/Paradise Bay no-shooting zone to include Hood Canal shoreline south to Hood Canal Bridge, and including Hood Head, an island connected by a sand spit.
It was contrary to a citizens advisory committee recommendation.
A week earlier, the seven-member No Shooting Area Review Committee recommended to the commissioners in a 6-1 vote that the Paradise Bay no-shooting area remain the same, based on the low density of population in the area and limited support.
