PALMER -- A private tactical shooting range near Sutton prevailed this week over a neighbor who claimed noise from the range is incompatible with a wedding and events venue he's developing.
A Matanuska-Susitna Borough appeals board on Wednesday sided with range owner J-TAC LLC in the appeal filed by Chris Rose, a Sutton resident who owns the 20-acre venue property.
The 2-year-old range and the investment property sit about a half-mile apart above a scenic stretch of the Matanuska River near Mile 58 of the Glenn Highway. The dispute referenced the area's illegal shooting problems but also its local zoning laws.
Rose and his partner, the owner of an Anchorage floral shop, spent significant money and time developing their business plan, one that could lead to local jobs, attorney Teresa Clemmer told the three-member Board of Adjustment and Appeals during Wednesday's hearing. Rose bought the land with the assurance that local zoning laws provided safeguards against noisy, hazardous neighbors like the shooting range, Clemmer said.
The Mat-Su lacks broad zoning but Sutton's is one of about a dozen special local zoning districts. Rose and other range critics believe the planning commission ignored zoning regulations and a land-use plan Sutton adopted starting in 2001, the same year Rose bought the property.
"This decision sends the message that nobody is safe from incompatible development," Rose said.
Brothers Tim and Jim Kane own the range and lease it to clients such as Alaska Tactical and Security Inc. for private training in skills such as wilderness survival and North Slope security.
Attorney Jason Ruedy, representing the brothers, said the borough process worked and correctly followed zoning requirements. He dismissed noise concerns and described as "really nonsense" Rose's contention that the river canyon amplifies the noise of gunfire. Ruedy said the range wasn't a traditional one with targets and open shooting but a supervised training range.
The range includes 20-foot berms to block noise and liners to guard against lead contamination, the brothers said during a break Wednesday. They said sound measured at the range boundary was lower than the roar of highway traffic.
"The limited supervised shooting that goes on at the J-TAC facility is not going to significantly impact the neighbors," Ruedy said.
Neighbors have already been exposed to the range. It opened in 2013 without the required conditional-use permit.
The Kanes meant "no ill intent" but authorities initially told them they didn't need a permit, Ruedy said. Attorney Clemmer countered that they knew a permit might be required but proceeded anyway.
A noise complaint in August 2014 got the borough's attention and triggered the conditional-use permit process.The planning commission approved a permit in February. Rose, a former planning commission member who helped craft Sutton's local zoning laws, filed an appeal.
The borough used the wrong location for a noise-blocking ridge, Rose said. He also faulted the conditions placed on the permit, including no restriction on caliber size, late-night shooting allowed in March and October, and the lack of a new permit process if the range later expands or becomes a public facility.
The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, which owns a large parcel near the range, filed comments about potential safety threat from bullets traveling off the property, Clemmer said. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game expressed concerns for passing kayakers or rafters.
But the borough permit conditions included "only vague sign requirements" for passing boaters, Clemmer said.
She, Rose and several range opponents testifying Wednesday said borough planning staff and the commission failed to provide the requisite "substantial evidence" that the range tracks with local zoning laws that protect quiet and recreation, among other things.
"If the borough can't protect this wedding venue business, I have to start to doubt that it can protect me," Sutton resident John Robertson testified.
But there's no such thing as peace and quiet in Sutton now, longtime resident and Sutton Community Council member Claudia Dolfi testified Wednesday. The council supports the range.
Dolfi described illegal shooting on the Matanuska River flats and in the hills up North Jonesville Mine Road, which draw a raucous scene on some weekends: hundreds of campers or motor homes, constant gunfire, explosions.
"No matter what happens here today, it will not change what happens in Sutton," she said.
Ruedy said noise from the J-TAC range was "indistinguishable" from the sound of gunfire rising from the Matanuska River flats below or from Jonesville Road.
But Rose in an earlier interview said he can't hear noise from Jonesville, which is about five miles from his property.
He said he does hear gunfire from the river's gravel bars below, but it's not a problem the way the consistent pop-pop-pop of shooting from the range is.
"They say it makes more sense to permit a range where shooting already occurs," Rose said. "If that is the case we should probably be approving shooting ranges in every neighborhood."
He said Wednesday after the decision that he hasn't decided whether to appeal.