After a four-year wait and more than $200,000 invested in safety upgrades, a state-run shooting range in Farragut will still not be allowed to open.

A district court judge decided Thursday not to lift the injunction on the Farragut Shooting Range, after he deemed that Idaho Fish and Game's extensive remodeling has not fully addressed concerns of stray bullets reaching nearby properties.

"Danger remains that a smaller but unknown number of rounds will ricochet off the rock-filled range floor," Judge John Mitchell wrote in an opinion issued on Aug. 25.

Those bullets could still go over the newly installed berms at the range, he added, and pose a risk both down range and off range.

An injunction has been placed on the roughly 190-acre shooting range since February, 2007, two years after a lawsuit was filed by Citizens Against Range Expansion. The group is comprised of several Bayview residents neighboring the range, who worried about noise and stray bullets on their property.

Scott Reed, who represented the Bayview residents with attorney Harvey Richman, said he was pleased with Thursday's opinion.

Under the 2007 order of injunction, the range could only reopen once baffles were installed and CARE members, or the court, agreed that improvements had made the site safe.

Fish and Game has since spent about $260,000 on range remodeling, according to agency staff. That has included lowering the 100-yard range and adding 12-foot berms to muffle noise and catch bullets.

Overhead safety baffles were also installed.

The agency requested the injunction be lifted in 2010. The most recent hearing over the request was this June.

No go.

Fish and Game still hasn't incorporated any measures to contain ricochets, Mitchell's opinion states.

"The partially contained range as constructed remains in violation of safety considerations set forth in 2007," the document reads.

Jeanne Hom-Holder, a member of CARE who lives a mile down range of the shooting range, was thrilled by the court opinion.

"It means I don't have to worry about bullets coming onto my private property or my neighbor's property," Hom-Holder said. "And the ramifications for other shooting ranges in other communities ... I'm hoping it will have an impact."

The neighbors' lawsuit was spurred by Fish and Game's proposal to expand the range several years ago, she said.

"The public began using it more and more," Hom-Holder said, adding that she hadn't been aware of the shooting range when she moved into her house in 1996. "The noise was just awful, and bullets have gone on my neighbors' property."

The several-year lawsuit has been worth the effort, she said.

"I had no choice. That's where I live," she said. "I was uncomfortable to have to stand in front of my children, to worry about bullets hitting them."

Mike Keckler, spokesman for Fish and Game, said the agency will have its legal representative review the opinion before commenting on its next move.