Dealing with the zoning board...

[Anonymous]

Hello folks!

My wife and I are doing some research into opening an indoor shooting facility in Lebanon. In talking to the local planning/zoning comissions, we found out that shooting ranges are not an approved use of business property. They are not specificaly prohibited, they are merely not included in the list of approved uses. Since a recent attempt by the Lebanon PD to build an outdoor training range was denied, a suggestion was made to meet with the city attorney and at least one member of the zoning board.

Since we're new to this business, we're asking for any help/guidance/tips any of you folks can direct our way! What types of questions can we expect? What type of materials should we have ready?

I'm going to contact the PD and see what problems they had, whether they were zoning or public relations.

Thanx all!

Freddie Rivera
a.k.a. sicorican

[MitchSchaft]

You could email Scott from RangeUSA.com. They run an awesome range here in Memphis.

[morg]

Boy oh boy! Are you ever in for a work out. I'll leave the legal aspects to John but give you my experience in dealing with "selling" an idea to the government.

First of all, contact as many indoor ranges as you can. Guns and Leather in Greenbriar comes to mind. Take pictures or better yet, video.

Contact the ,hold your nose, NRA for a booklet on gun ranges.

Make friends with the P.D., Sheriff's department, and even the local TN Troopers.

You are going to have to push the safety angle and the good neighbor business angle. And it's good to have all those government employees on your side hoping for a chance to get use of your range.

Ask around the gun shops and see if any of the board members are shooters.

Toss in a couple of free safety classes for the boardmember's wives and kids and you might just have them in the right frame of mind to listen to your proposal.

Even if no one on the board is anti-gun they are still going to have concern for preventing "wild shots" out of the buidling. . .yep, I know it's not possible but you are still going to have to show them the track record and prove this to them.

Ralph Barrett had to move his .50 cal. range years ago when the houses in Murfreesburo got too close. You might look him up and see how he dealt with zoning.

Personally, I'd love to see a coffee shop/ indoor range in Nashville where I could pop in for just an hour ot two.

The one near my house required me to use thier extremely overpriced ammo which did nothing but lighten my wallet and gave me no confidence in my personal firearm-ammo combination.

HLE

[Tim Nunan]

Another successful indoor range is the Sevier Indoor Range in Sevierville.
www.sevierindoorrange.com