Writing the rules of the range

WASILLA — As Wasilla’s mayor works to make good on a campaign promise to build an outdoor gun range within the city, a property owner near the site wonders what happened to the city’s promise to him years ago to build ball fields in exchange for a utility easement needed for the Menard sports complex.

“If I’d known they were going to put a firing range there, I never in a million years would have given them access to my property,” Brad Laybourn said after spending all day Friday at appeal hearings in hopes of stopping the construction of an 18-lane shooting range next to the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center.

Laybourn was one of more than eight property owners appealing the approval of the shooting range by the Wasilla Planning Commission in May 2009.

Wasilla Councilwoman Taffina Katkus and her husband, John, also are among those fighting the city’s efforts to build the range. They own two homes off Bailey Lane that sit 700 feet from the 20-acre site.

Appeal Hearing Officer Eric Jensen, a Wasilla attorney appointed to decide on the appeals, told those appealing he would have a decision within the next month.

Residents near the site worry about their quality of life and potential loss of property values because of the constant noise generated by a shooting range. They also are concerned about possible lead contamination, safety and the lack of due process afforded them when the range was first proposed.

Laybourn said he feels cheated by Mayor Verne Rupright and his staff because the city never followed through on its agreement to build an access road and put in utilities for his future housing development in exchange for granting the city right-of-way for the center’s utility easement.

Laybourn, who has owned 80 acres between the Parks Highway and Bailey Lane near the Wasilla airport for 12 years, explained that the city came to him in 2002 when Sarah Palin was mayor and asked him for permission to put in a water and sewer easement for the future sports center.

“We told them we’d give them the right-of-way on 60 feet of our property because they said they would put in a soccer field, baseball field and a football field next to the new sports center,” Laybourn explained. “I loved that idea because I had a young son and I also wanted to turn my property into a nice park for families, with a fishing pond and everything.”

Laybourn said he believes the city probably wouldn’t have been able to build the Menard sports complex in the first place without him granting access for utilities.

“I’m sure I saved the city millions by giving them access, and now I have not only spent $20,000 so far to fight the gun range, but I’ve probably lost millions because I haven’t been able to build the homes and put in a motor home park since the city has failed to live up to its end of the bargain by building the road off Mack Road for me,” he said. “That’s just wrong in so many ways.”

During Friday’s appeals hearings, property owners and their legal representatives, Kevin Baker and Brad DeNoble, said they don’t buy the city’s argument that there’s nowhere else to put the firing range. They also argue it wasn’t coincidence when the Wasilla Planning Commission re-zoned the area for industrial uses so the firing range could be built there.

They questioned why the Wasilla Parks and Recreation Commission wasn’t given a voice in the decision when the area was converted from future outdoor playing fields to an outdoor gun range.

Parks and Recreation Commission member Dave Tuttle said Saturday he couldn’t comment on the issue, other than to say, “I walk a fine line. I serve at the pleasure of the city.”

During the hearings, city attorney Richard Payne didn’t address Laybourn’s easement issue or the fact that parks and rec commission members weren’t consulted when the planning commission agreed to grant a conditional use permit for the firing range.

Because the city approached the gun range proposal through a conditional use permit, it didn’t have to get approval from the city council — only the planning commission.

Payne said property owners are using a “kitchen sink attack” in their fight against the range and said the argument they weren’t properly notified of the planning commission’s public hearings was “disingenuous.”

Two gun rights advocates also spoke during the appeals hearings, arguing that plenty of people are in favor of the shooting range.

Len Betts, who has a Wasilla address but is not a city resident, plopped down a miniature model of the proposed gun range in front of the hearing officer and said he represented the Mat-Su Second Amendment Task Force.

He said the model was built by James Hastings, who manages the Menard sports complex. There is a special fund that could pay for 50 percent of the cost of the shooting range, and an archery course is also planned at the site.

He said there are people who have volunteered to build the range for the city at cost to help Wasilla save money.

Denny Hamann, state committee chair of the Friends of the NRA, said the NRA gave $400,000 to the state to help fund gun ranges and that there’s a grant available to help pay for the local shooting range.

“A lot of folks came to the NRA asking for more gun ranges in the area,” he said. “It’s getting harder and harder to find a place to shoot. We’re all about gun safety.”

Laybourn said Saturday that the model of the shooting range had been used by those pushing for the shooting range to convince residents to sign a petition in favor of the range.

The problem is, he said, the petition never stated exactly where the new shooting range would be located.

“They gathered 2,000 signatures from people all over the United States,” Laybourn said. “It was such a phony petition. When I went around to all the residents near the sports center and along Lake Lucille Drive, not one of them was in favor of having the shooting range there. The only property owner who wants it is Dan Kennedy, but he doesn’t live there. He wants to use his land for industrial purposes.”

Laybourn said that if the hearing officer decides to allow the firing range to be built, he will continue to appeal.

“I’ll take it all the way to the superior court if I have to,” he said. “Taffina isn’t allowed to speak on the issue to the city council because they say it’s a conflict of interest, but if anyone has a conflict, it’s the mayor and the city.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.