Shooting range gets another look

WASILLA — After a lengthy appeal process remanded plans for a shooting range back to the planning commission, the city is waiting for the results of an acoustic survey before moving forward.

The original plans hatched last spring would have built the shooting range on the city-owned property next to the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center. The plans made it through the Wasilla Planning Commission before a local resident filed an appeal.

The appeals officer ruled largely in favor of the city and its plans, except in the area of off-site impacts. The city needed to further investigate what the surrounding area is used for and how a shooting range would affect these uses, the decision says.

For Mayor Verne Rupright, this means it all comes down to sound. How loud will the shots be and how far will that sound carry?

Rupright said the current design uses all the best practices of noise mitigation. Following National Rifle Association specifications, the range would have 25-foot earthen berms, and the shooting stations would be covered with a 30-foot long overhanging pitched roof. Additionally, baffling will cover the range over its entire length.

“You can’t see the sky from the firing line because of the baffling,” Rupright said.

Given the design — the same one Rupright said the Army used for ranges in Berlin, Germany — the location of the range doesn’t matter. The sound coming off of it will be the same no matter its location.

Because of this, the city has hired an acoustic engineering firm to study what the actual levels of sound coming from the range would be. Once the planning commission has the results, then it can decide if the off-site impact questions have been sufficiently answered.

Rupright expects the results of the noise study in March.

In the meantime, Councilwoman Dianne Woodruff is calling for the city’s parks and recreation committee to hold a public hearing on the plans for the shooting range.

Woodruff said she, as well as the rest of the council, recognizes the need for a centrally located shooting range. However, before the plans go back to the planning commission for approval, Woodruff would like to see the concerns and recommendations aired in a public setting.

“I cannot think, for the life of me, what would be lost in that process,” Woodruff said.

Rupright said any input is valuable, but added that a public hearing should wait until after the acoustic report is completed.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.