Assembly postpones action on youth shooting range

BIG LAKE — A proposed sale of borough land to the Alaska Scholastic Clay Target Program for development of a youth shooting range was postponed during the regular Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday evening.

Seats in the borough assembly chambers in Palmer were filled and attendees spilled into adjoining rooms for the public hearing on ordinance 15-001, which asked for approval of the less-than-fair-market value sale of two parcels adjacent to Purinton Parkway to be developed as a small-bore rifle and shotgun range primarily for youth shooting teams.

Alaska SCTP President Neil Moss filed the application for the sale to the borough Oct. 27, 2014, with a letter in which he addressed reasons the organizations seeks to develop a range.

According to the letter, the plan is to build at least two skeet fields and two trap fields as soon as possible, with the ultimate goal of providing a training facility of Olympic/international caliber.

One reason the organization wants this is to decrease costs young shooters currently face — high school teams pay $350 per athlete for practices at Grouse Ridge Shooting Grounds in Wasilla, and $200 to $250 per athlete for practices at Birchwood Shooting Park in Chugiak. The other reason is to decrease driving time for shooters who live and go to school in the Wasilla/Houston/Big Lake areas.

The proposed site is approximately 22 miles from Wasilla High School; in comparison, Birchwood is 25 miles away, and Grouse Ridge is 8.5 miles away.

While most community members who spoke seemed to favor a gun range designated for young shooters in the Mat-Su Valley, about half objected to the potential location on account of its proximity to their homes.

Big Lake resident Marc Dobkowsky was one such homeowner.

Dobkowsky said he was concerned about noise, which other speakers echoed. He used his experience near Grouse Ridge Shooting Park in Wasilla as an example.

“I worked at Wolf Lake Airport for many years, which is a mile and a half from Grouse Ridge, and always heard (shooting), winter or summer,” he said.

Dobkowsky lives about a half-mile from the proposed site for the scholastic program’s range, he said.

“I think it’s a great idea, I think the kids need it, I just don’t think it’s the right spot,” he said.

Local real estate agent and longtime Valley resident Kibe Lucas also spoke against the proposed site as both a homeowner in the area and a person who sells homes.

“I can tell you after selling hundreds and hundreds of homes in this Valley that if people have a choice they will not live next to a shooting range,” he said.

Lucas said noise is one reason homebuyers would choose not to live next to a gun range, but safety is another.

Big Lake resident Denise Hall said her home is less than half a mile from the potential location, and with three small children, she worries they will not be able to safely play in the area around their house.

“I don’t ever wanna have to tell them that they can’t go outside for 10 hours a day when there could be possible shooting,” she said.

Hall said she was especially concerned with the proximity of the potential shooting range site to two trails they frequently use for biking, walking and skiing. She said she supports the idea of a local shooting range, just not at this location.

“I think that it is a great idea to teach children and young teens how to shoot,” Hall said. “We have taught our children to shoot already, and so, again, I am only against the location.”

Moss rebutted the audience’s noise, safety and property value concerns.

On the point of noise, he said the shotgun loads the students use are specifically designed to make as little sound as possible with as little recoil as possible for the shooters.

“Unless you’re within 400 (or) 500 yards of this, you’re not gonna hear it,” Moss said.

On the point of property value decreasing and keeping people from buying houses or land in the area, he referenced Grouse Ridge, saying that houses have grown up around the range.

“It’s not slowing anybody down from living there,” he said.

To address safety, Moss pulled out a map. Within the parcels in question, a small half-circle represented the area in which shot would be expected to fall, on average. A larger half-circle, still within the parcels, represented a 300-yard range recommended by the NRA for safe shotgun shooting.

According to Moss, the shot used can travel a maximum of 272 yards under perfect conditions.

“As far as shot falling or going anywhere other than on this property and endangering anybody or any eagles or any wildlife of any kind, it’s just absolutely not gonna happen,” he said.

Linda Page of Wasilla also spoke to issues of safety in terms of the particular demographic that will be shooting at the proposed range.

“People are concerned about safety. I would be more concerned with the unorganized shooting habits of a lot of people around the Valley. They are the safety hazard,” she said.

As part of an organized program, shooters with Alaska SCTP should not be an issue, Page added.

“The program teaches respect, dedication, safety and confidence in these young shooters. All the coaches accomplish this with their thorough knowledge of the sport, respect to firearms and relentless dedication, and you don't find that very often, with the hours these people put in,” she said.

Other speakers voiced concerns about the public notice process used to spread word of the requested land sale. Public notice of a land sale must be given at least 30 days prior to the public hearing by the assembly or decision by the manager, according to borough code 23.05.025. Borough rules also require a copy of the public notice “be mailed to all landowners within at least 600 feet of the exterior boundary of the area.” In this case, that distance was extended to a quarter-mile.

Of the 56 residents who received and responded to the public notice within the designated period (before Dec. 5, 2014), two individuals did not want the range in the proposed location, and two individuals said they would support the range in the proposed location if certain conditions were met (mainly precautionary). The rest were completely in support of a gun range in the specified location.

The code also requires that public notice be printed in a newspaper of general circulation at least two times during the public notice period. Frontiersman records show that the notice printed on page A7 of the Nov. 7, 11, 18, 21 and 25 editions of the newspaper.

Nevertheless, after the close of the hearing and a long back-and-forth discussion —primarily between assembly members Dan Mayfield, of Big Lake, and Ron Arvin, of Wasilla — the assembly postponed a decision until June 16.

“The two auxiliary issues that come up,” Mayfield said, “is, are we giving away a public resource for something less than the taxpayers of this borough would expect, and No. 2, are we putting this shooting range in an area that clearly does not want it?”

Mayfield then referenced the Big Lake Community Council’s unanimous opposition of the sale — detailed in a letter sent to the borough Nov. 19, 2014 — which was based on “lack of overall information,” “concern with noise,” “hours of operation,” and “environmental impact,” all issues voiced by individual speakers at the meeting.

The borough intends to use the next five months to evaluate another parcel of borough land suitable for a youth shooting range.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.