Coweta County commissioners last week agreed to consider allowing indoor shooting ranges to be established in the county. The Planning & Zoning Department will draft an ordinance amendment that, if approved, would be subject to a case-by-case examination by commissioners as a conditional use in industrial zoning districts.

The shooting range request surfaced after CDM Investment Partners co-owners and Sharpsburg residents Harlan Hammack and Joe Mezzatesta met with Planning & Zoning staff and Coweta County Sheriff’s Office. Their idea is to construct and operate a 15-20 lane indoor public shooting range designed specifically for small arms such as handguns, shotguns and small caliber rifles.

Outside the facility, CDM is proposing to conduct related training and education activities, including the use of non-lethal practice rounds made of alternative materials.

"There is no facility in the Newnan area,” Mezzatesta said, noting that a different type of shooting range does operate in the Grantville area. “We’re proposing a premier firearms training facility, with a retail (component) that focuses on personal and home defense where people can get firearms and home defense training. I think the training facility would be a great benefit.”

A letter from Planning & Zoning Director Robert Tolleson on the issue noted a communication from Sheriff’s Training Coordinator/Instructor Sgt. Andy Briggs. Aside from reporting that the sheriff’s office conducts citizens’ firearms classes, Briggs said the type of indoor facility described by CDM is a needed and wanted service in Coweta. Individuals may receive training but have no convenient location to practice, Briggs said.

Also at the meeting to discuss another proposed indoor range was gun store owner Rusty Morris, who is interested in establishing a 10-lane indoor shooting range with a retail component. Morris, in response to a question on noise from Commissioner Al Smith, said any noise coming from the shooting range would be negligible at 50 feet from the building given the current sound-proofing materials used to construct shooting ranges. His was a point reiterated by Hammack and Mezzatesta.

Representing Coweta’s Planning & Zoning Dept., Assistant Administrator Angela White recommended that commissioners consider including indoor shooting ranges as a conditional use in the county’s Industrial and Light Industrial zoning districts. If the new zoning category is approved, applicants will be considered on a case-by-case basis due to the conditional use provision.

Commissioners instructed the Planning & Zoning Department to draft and submit the new zoning category.

login to post comments