A safety expert whose highly critical report led Cape Elizabeth officials to shut down a controversial outdoor shooting range last month is scheduled to review his findings at a Town Council meeting on Monday.

Town officials received a preliminary report on July 23 from Rick LaRosa, an architect from Kennesaw, Georgia, who is endorsed by the National Rifle Association and was hired by the town to evaluate the shooting range at the Spurwink Rod & Gun Club.

The next day, Police Chief Neil Williams ordered the club to suspend shooting at the town’s only outdoor range because LaRosa’s 17-page report indicated that he found the facility at 1250 Sawyer Road to be unsafe for members and neighbors.

The council will meet at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

LaRosa found a variety of safety and security deficiencies at the range, including a lack of structures to prevent stray bullets from leaving the property, protect club members from being hit by accidental discharges and keep nonmembers from accidentally or intentionally entering the 18-acre facility.

Club leaders have said they will address the report’s safety concerns, but they defended their ongoing efforts to improve the shooting range and questioned the “reasonableness” of LaRosa’s standards in assessing a club with “a 61-year history of safety and previously passed inspections.”

LaRosa’s report is the latest twist in a conflict between the decades-old club and its newer residential neighbors, whose safety and noise complaints the Town Council tried to address last year by passing a shooting range ordinance.

The Town Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing Sept. 14 on the club’s application for a license to operate under the ordinance.

The ordinance established the Firing Range Committee, which recently issued its own findings that the town’s only shooting range operates safely when “used as intended” under state and local laws and should be licensed by the town.

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