It is unclear whether a proposal to put an indoor shooting range near Quinn’s Junction will draw fire.
A developer at the Park City Business Center hopes the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission amends its development code to allow the roughly 10,000-square-foot facility. The Planning Commission was slated to discuss the request in a work session scheduled Tuesday after The Park Record deadline.
“I hope it will be well received because it is an amenity for the community,” developer Glenn Girsberger said. “It is a good use for the property and I think it fits well in the project.”
The Summit County Council has received complaints about shooting that has occurred recently at a makeshift range on nearby Silver Summit Parkway.
“There have been people out there shooting who have no place to go,” Girsberger said. “There seems to be a real interest in a facility that would provide a means for people to be educated and taught about safety, and have a place to shoot firearms in a controlled environment.”
Summit County needs another shooting range, South Summit gun enthusiast Leo Williams said.
Kamas has a gun club but the Park City area has lacked a range since trespassers were barred from land that provided shooting at Richardson Flat. Williams, who had permission to shoot rifles on private land adjacent to the LDS Church in Trailside, quit target practice there when neighbors complained last month.
Since then he has been contacted by about 300 local gun enthusiasts who want a West Side shooting range, Williams said.
Meanwhile, the noise shooting ranges in other areas generate that has angered neighbors is not expected to be a problem near Quinn’s Junction.
“What we have in mind is creating a really first-class, indoor training and education facility. There is no indoor facility providing services like that anywhere near here,” said Dan Labov, co-founder of Park City Target Club LLC. “I came out here from New York, and just as a participant or consumer I was stunned to find that there were no good alternatives around here, that you had to go so far for an indoor range.”
But some shooting facilities emit toxic chemicals that damage the air quality.
“I am going to spend all day there and I want that air every bit as clean as the air outside,” Labov said about high-tech ventilation equipment he plans to use at the gun range.
Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds said the proposed location away from houses and stores would keep the shooting range from creating disruptions.
“We have had some problems with outdoor shooting in the Snyderville Basin in the past and this is a nice solution to that problem,” Edmunds said. “Anytime you’ve got a situation where it’s a win-win, I think government should help people solve these problems.”
Even deputies would use the shooting range, he said.
“A nice indoor range that we could utilize in the middle of winter would sure be a great thing for us,” Edmunds said. “I’m glad to see they’re proposing it in an area that seems reasonable for that type of usage.”