Johnston board opposed gun range

After months of listening to gunshots from a neighboring shooting range, residents on both sides of the Johnston-Wake line near Wendell took their case to Johnston officials last month.

The neighbors won the first battle against Learn to Shoot N.C., a commercial firing range, with the county's planning board voting 7-1 to recommend that county commissioners deny the business a permit.

Last March, Raleigh resident Travis Beatty started offering shooting classes behind a friend's home on Turnipseed Road. Certified by the National Rifle Association, Beatty said he saw an increasing demand for concealed-carry classes. "There's a huge public outcry for our business," he said.

He said he contacted the Johnston County Sheriff's Office and was told he could offer classes as long as the shooting was safe. But neighbors complained about the noise, and county planning officials told Beatty he was in violation of Johnston zoning rules unless he obtained a permit.

Dozens of neighboring property owners came to last week's planning board meeting to oppose Beatty's permit request. Wanda Wingard said her husband works nights and now can't sleep because of the sound.

"It terrifies my dogs," Wingard said. "It's inconsiderate, and it's just gotten really bad since October. That gulley funnels sound right up to my house. It's like a megaphone."

Jim Puryear owns a rental house near the range, and he said his tenant is ready to move out. "I'm also a real-estate agent, and there's hundreds of articles out there that when there's a gun range, property values do go down," he said. "You may have a situation where the houses won't sell. I don't think we need to put a gun range between houses and across from a subdivision that is not completed."

Tuscan Ridge subdivision is across the street from the range, and it has nine lots remaining. Many of its current residents signed a petition against the shooting range, though Beatty said the homebuilder there supports his business.

Tuscan Ridge resident Rhonda Smith brought her two children to the meeting. She said their school bus stops near the range, which is open Wednesday afternoons. "This range is in operation at the time children are let off the bus," Smith said. "It is frightful for these children."

For his part, Beatty says he's willing to take additional measures to quiet the shots. If the county approves his permit request, he plans to build individual shooting booths with foam and plywood, and he'll put an eight-foot wall around the range. "It will not make it 100 percent quiet," he said. "I can't offer that."

Some neighbors were concerned too about safety. Jody Chamblee owns the woods that back up to the shooting range, and he said he doesn't want bullets on his property. "Those woods are not as deep as you think," he said. "My children can't go back there."

Beatty insists his range is safe, noting a nine-foot-tall berm reinforced with railroad ties. Also, he said he has one instructor for every two shooters. "We're not a fly-by-night operation; we do everyting to the utmost level we possibly can," he said. "We have ideas how to continually improve our range."

In the end, the majority of the planning board agreed with county staff's opinion that the noise is too much for a residential area. But their vote won't put an end to the range yet. Johnston County Commissioners will have the final say at their March meeting.

Planning officials initially said Beatty could continue to hold classes until the commissioners' meeting. County policy allows businesses that are violating planning rules to continue as long as they're seeking a permit, county planner Berry Gray said.

But on Thursday, Gray said the county will shut down the range in response to Chamblee's concerns. "Becuase that danger area does fall within the neighboring property's boundaries ... there is an immediate safety issue," Gray said.

Gray said the protocol was unclear because no one had applied for a shooting range before. Commissioners will vote March 5.