Assembly shoots down range proposal

PALMER — Youth shooting enthusiasts faced a second rejection by assembly members at the regular assembly meeting Tuesday.

Assembly members rejected by a 4-3 vote a proposed less-than-fair-market sale of roughly 240 acres of land in the Knik-Fairview area for use as a youth shotgun shooting range. Assembly members Dan Mayfield, Ron Arvin, and Steve Colligan voted in support of the deal.

The decision stalls for now plans to build a youth shooting range in the Valley. Organizers of the school-affiliated Scholastic Clay Target Program had pushed for borough land to establish the range at a list of locations. They have been met by opposition in the numerous places they have sought to set up the operation, most recently in Knik-Fairview, where critics charged that shot contamination could possibly render the land unusable, and raised the issue of safety concerns for nearby Joe Reddington, Jr. Junior-Senior High School.

Assembly members, like the newly minted mayor-elect Vern Halter, walked a tightrope between support for the school program, which they lauded, and land use issues.

“I just wanted to make sure, and kind of correct the record,” Halter said. “It’s always been location to me. Really we had this issue solved in the 2016 budget.”

A former landing strip in the Miller’s Reach area, which did not survive a mayoral veto, was the best location, but the assembly had voted against it, Halter pointed out.

“It was really too ideal to be true,” he said.

Assemblyman Jim Sykes reiterated concerns about the land use for the area. The lot is three times the size of the 80 acres recommended as ideal for shooting ranges by the National Rifle Association, Sykes said. Requests for less-than-fair market value should be reformed, Sykes said.

“What we’ve got here is, we’ve gotten ourselves into a situation where anybody can apply for less-than-fair-market-value sale of land and it comes directly to the assembly, and its really pretty absurd,” he said. “This is a land-use issue.”

Mayfield tried to compromise between opponents and supporters on the assembly by increasing the sale amount from $16,000 to $50,000, and offering a slew of covenants designed to restrict the way the land could be used to create the least impact to the surrounding neighborhood. In the end, he was forced to admit defeat.

“I do feel like there’s great value in the program,” he said. “There probably isn’t a perfect place for this program any place in the Valley. So when you’re faced with a situation like that, you need to seek compromise.”

Asked what he would do next, Alaska Scholastic Clay Target Program director Neil Moss sounded despondent.

“I don’t know,” he said. “There aren’t that many viable places owned by the borough to pick from. We’ve pretty much picked them all. I would like to thank Mr. Mayfield, Arvin, Colligan and mayor DeVilibss for their support and their foresight.”

Moss labeled the assembly members who voted against the measure anti-gun, even members who said they voted against the range’s location only reluctantly.

“I can’t fight anti-gun politicians,” he said.

Contact Reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.