PALMER -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly last week tabled a land deal that would have created a new Valley-area shooting range for a growing corps of youth shooting teams.
The deal involved a $17,720 payment for borough land near Big Lake valued at 10 times that much. It would create primarily a clay target field, with opportunities for archery teams and an area to certify for basic hunter education with a rifle, supporters say.
The Assembly voted to delay a decision until June, in hopes that borough staff could find a new location for the range. Residents living near the proposed range testified during a crowded public hearing about the potential for noise and threats to wildlife, as well as a lack of public notice.
Nearly everyone who testified favored the idea of a shotgun range, but some also felt the location was either too close to homes or stood in the way of future development if a planned four-lane road from Port MacKenzie to the Parks Highway is built.
Some Assembly members voiced opposition to the borough losing money on the sale, especially during what's expected to be a tight budget season.
"Are we giving away a public resource for less than the taxpayers of this borough would expect?" said Dan Mayfield, who represents Big Lake. "Are we putting this shooting range in an area that clearly does not want it?"
Advocates for the range say the location was ideal because it offered natural berms that created built-in safety features and sat within relatively easy driving distance of many athletes.
Anywhere from 50 to 72 Mat-Su students now make the drive to the Birchwood Recreation & Shooting Park in Chugiak to practice, according to the Alaska Scholastic Clay Target Program, the nonprofit that requested the land. The Colony High School team practices at Grouse Ridge Shotgun Shooting Club, a privately owned range near Wasilla, where families pay at least $350 per athlete.
Program officer Lindy Moss expressed disappointment with the decision on Friday, which she blamed partly on misinformation about the amount of rifle shooting planned.
Moss said the group is moving forward and still looking for other locations in the Valley area, particularly to serve students at Susitna Valley schools with long drives to existing ranges.
"It's not going away," she said, of the push for a local range. "Our program is growing too fast and it's too important to just go away."
The land deal, proposed by Assembly member Ron Arvin, started with the shooting group's application to purchase the 80-acre property near the Susitna and Purinton parkways at below market value for a competitive shotgun course and small-bore rifle range primarily for youth shooting teams, according to a borough memo.
The program hopes to build two skeet fields and two trap fields for use by shooting teams in Southcentral, with plans for a sporting clays course in the future, according to a letter sent to the borough. Youth archery programs could also benefit, Moss said.
The borough in 2013 assessed the property at $177,200, the memo says. Under borough code, the lowest payment the clay target program could buy it for was $17,720, which was the proposed asking price.
The public hearing drew more than an hour of public testimony.
A number of students joined the crowd that packed into the Assembly chambers at the borough building in Palmer. Numerous people testified in favor of the land deal, saying shooting sports supply gun safety instruction, an avenue for scholarships and a sense of responsibility for young people who may not gravitate to team sports.
Palmer resident Hunter Smith said he was on the original Houston shooting team and called the Big Lake proposal "a crucial step" in the sport's future.
"Living in Willow and then shooting for Houston, it was a pain being able to get to the practices that were required in order for me to be successful," Smith said. "Having a range that is more local, I think, is in the best interest of a lot of athletes, a lot of parents who want their children to be able to do this but can't because it just costs too much to drive to wherever the shooting ranges are."
Opposition to the range came from nearby residents concerned about noise and threats to birds and other wildlife as well as property values.
"I can tell you after selling hundreds and hundreds of homes in this valley," said Kibe Lucas, a well-known realtor with a home near the proposed range. "If people have a choice they will not live next to a shooting range."
Some Big Lake community members said there wasn't enough public notice. One resident said he gathered 63 signatures against the proposal in just one afternoon at the East Lake Mall.
Jim Faiks, who represents a local group trying to make Big Lake a second-class city, said the land could fall within the boundaries of that new city.
Faiks also noted that the Big Lake comprehensive plan designates the corridor containing the proposed range as commercial or industrial, and called taking it out of those uses "inappropriate."
Arvin pointed out that people within a quarter-mile of the parcel were notified, as was the community council secretary, the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce and several area boards. The borough received 48 written comments generally in support, according to the memo accompanying Arvin's proposal.
The Big Lake Community Council objected to the range location, based on lack of information provided by the scholastic clay-target program, noise concerns and environmental impacts of lead shot. Some borough departments also objected to the below-market-value price and the nonagricultural use of the land.
A motion Arvin made to postpone the decision only until March to give the shooting group more time to start construction this season was voted down.
Eric Phillips, the borough's community development director, warned the group that shooting ranges are always tricky to site.
"No location is going to be free from detractors," Phillips said. "Can we find a better location? Perhaps. I do not know where that magic no-controversy area exists within the borough."