In November 2019, Mirosław Schreiber first approached Wójt Andrzej Dutkowski with an application to approve the regulations for a shooting range in Nowe Jaroszowice. The Wójt refused, explaining that the location, construction and use of the shooting range in accordance with applicable law, including architectural and construction regulations, had not been confirmed. Mirosław Schreiber appealed to the court.
The Local Government Appeals Board in Jelenia Góra did acknowledge that deciding whether the shooting range had been properly located and built fell outside the Wójt’s competence, but this did not mean that the Wójt was not entitled to check whether the competent authorities, in the appropriate procedure, had approved the location and construction of the shooting range.
However, Mirosław Schreiber did not build and will not build any structures. He will use the natural shape of the terrain to prevent fired bullets from leaving the shooting-range area. Therefore, he could not obtain a building permit, because he had not planned any construction at all. The court nevertheless found that regardless of whether the shooting range was a building, was arranged outside a building, or was located entirely in an open area, it would always be a construction object. The court argued that the method of constructing the shooting range intended by Mirosław Schreiber—not constituting ordinary land levelling or earth spreading—would result in the creation of an earth structure and therefore a construction object within the meaning of Article 3(3) of the Construction Law. This is how the case ended in February 2020.
Later, Mirosław Schreiber once again submitted an application to approve the regulations, but the Wójt refused again.
In September 2022, Mirosław Schreiber submitted an application for the third time. The Wójt refused again, claiming that nothing new had happened in the case. That was not true. Mirosław Schreiber appealed to the court, and this time the court found in favour of the citizen. It turned out that the application now included a letter from the Bolesławiec County Office. The letter stated that, in the matter of the intended construction works involving the movement of earth masses, those works fell outside the competence of
the Bolesławiec County Starost acting as the architectural and construction administration authority. At the same time, the letter indicated that if the shooting range was to be a construction object, the applicant would not be exempt from the need to obtain permits and authorisations required under separate legal regulations. The court found that this was new information in the case and that the Wójt should address it properly and consider the matter on its merits.
“They brush me off at every turn. One of the officials arranged to speak with me on a specific day, but when I arrived, he said he had no time. So the conversation never took place,” Mirosław Schreiber told us. The founder of the shooting range is resentful of the officials, who, in his view, are simply making it harder to resolve the matter.
We wanted to speak with someone from Bolesławiec municipality about the entire matter. We sent an email regarding the case. Unfortunately, none of the officials, nor Wójt Dutkowski himself, responded to our request. There is therefore no reason not to believe Mirosław Schreiber when he says that the Wójt is playing games with him and is not willing to process the application to approve the shooting range regulations.