Frustrated in the borough ordinance process

On Tuesday, February 18 the Borough Assembly again discussed and passed Ordinance 20-025 which would regulate “outdoor shooting facilities in order to establish standards for commercial, educational, and nonprofit outdoor shooting facilities.”

The ordinance was referred, yet again, back to the Planning Department for further review. On February 23, in a letter to the editor, Dave Musgrave expressed his gratitude to certain Assembly members “for upholding the duty of government to provide a rational process for consideration of the safety measure.” He also criticized “some members of the audience” who “were overtly disruptive.”

Yes, the crowd was rowdy. They were frustrated with the process and the frustration continues. We have fought this issue for two years. Borough planning on this issue started by trying to get disinterested people to comment. Existing ranges were not invited into the process Then the Planning Department brought the plan to an assembly meeting to discuss. They sent it back to planning. This will be the third referral to the Planning Department. What are they going to change this time that won’t be an infringement on our rights?

Mr. Musgrave accused Assembly members Jesse Sumner, Ted Leonard and George McKee of attempting to presuppose what the Borough residents think. However, at a rally outside the Borough building on January 31, many hundreds of Borough citizens, many armed, peacefully protested the ordinance. There were 660 signatures against the measure from the members of the rally. Of the 53 citizens who testified on February 18, 41 wanted the ordinance thrown out and only 12 were in favor of passing it. After hearing the testimony, the vote stayed the same. So, who was listening?

No matter what the Planning Department does, Tamara Boeve, Tim Hale, Stephanie Nowers and Dan Mayfield will still vote for the ordinance. Mr. Mayfield has already been instrumental in preventing the construction of two ranges for use in high school shot gun competition. Jesse Sumner, Ted Leonard and George McKee will vote to throw it out as their constituents want and the frustration will continue.

However, this is no draft safety measure; it is an ordinance to impose another level of regulation on the citizens of the Mat-Su Borough in order to correct a problem that doesn’t exist. Currently, there are four (4) public shooting ranges in the Borough: MVS (dating back to the 1960s), the new range at Maud Road, Grouse Ridge and the range near Talkeetna. All of these have excellent safety records without these new regulations. We do not need new regulations; we don’t need to fix what isn’t broken.

This whole issue was started by neighbors who can’t get along and one of them has enough clout in the Borough to get an ordinance written but the resulting ordinance does not address shooting on private land, instead it seeks to regulate commercial shooting ranges. This regulation does not stop private parties from shooting on their own land; rather it regulates ranges that teach safety, care and handling of firearms, the State of Alaska hunter safety courses and high school shooting sports. The complaints of not wanting your neighbor shooting his gun on his land because the noise and/or safety issues scare you is not addressed.

From a personal perspective, this ordinance would put an extreme financial strain on our MVS range because, due to the Glenn Highway expansion, we will have to purchase a strip of property from our neighbor to replace our parking area lost to the highway. We can afford to buy the property, but not to comply with Applications Procedures Code 17.68.040 by paying a professional engineering company to do a certified site plan, a site specific environmental plan for managing materials in accordance with EPA Best Management Practices, and a study of surface danger zones as determined by a professional engineer registered in the state of Alaska. That would be a lot for a replacement parking lot! We may also have issues with the setback for our outdoor firing line due to the land lost for the bike trail along the expanded highway.

The only thing which will help stop Alaskans from shooting in their back yards is more shooting ranges but this ordinance will make it significantly more difficult to expand an existing range or to build a new range in the Mat-Su Borough.

Earl Lackey is President of Mat-Valley Sportsmen, Inc.