A proposed public shooting range in Arvada, with potentially up to 30 lanes for pistol and rifle use, brought out dozens of people Tuesday evening with questions about the noise impacts such a facility might pose .
“It’s so quiet where we live — all you can hear are the frogs and crickets,” said Brett Vernon, a resident of Leyden Rock, which is about a mile or so from the proposed range inside Arvada’s 1,600-acre Blunn/Pioneer site. “There are ways to mitigate these things. I think our concerns should be taken seriously.”
Vernon was one of about 50 people who came out to a public meeting at Ralston Valley High School Tuesday to take in the preliminary results of a noise test done for the Jeffco Public Shooting Range,.
The initial data from tests performed last month show that distance from the range would serve as the most effective sound damper, with most homes falling well outside the buffer at which background noise swallows any sounds from the shooting range. But some neighbors weren’t convinced that they wouldn’t be subject to the constant — albeit dull — pop-pop-pop of guns firing in the distance.
“It might be quiet gunfire, but it’s going to be gunfire,” said Richard Wallace, who lives in the Spring Mesa neighborhood in northwest Arvada. “I’m not against the range but I’d be curious about the mitigation.”
Tom Hoby, director of Open Space and Parks for Jefferson County, said discussions about building berms and installing other noise mitigating measures would come later. Right now, the county is just trying to find a site for a public shooting range that has the fewest impacts on surrounding communities.
After a multi-year search, a 6-acre site just east of State Highway 93 and south of Leyden Road was identified by a working group.
“A lot of the counties around here have the same problem: A lot of people and no place to shoot,” Hoby said. “Our intention here is to have this be a facility that serves the vast majority of shooting interests.”
Hoby said nearly one of three Jefferson County residents owns a firearm and there are not many public ranges in or around the county at which to practice marksmanship. That means that shooters head into nearby federal forest land to use their weapons, leaving behind trashed targets, denuded hillsides and pounds of lead from spent ammunition.
The new Jefferson County shooting range would be built with the latest controls to ensure the safety of those firing weapons and those living in close proximity to the range. It would also have ways of capturing and removing lead contamination at the site, Hoby said.
Wayne Harris, who lives in the Spring Mesa neighborhood overlooking the range site, said another shooting range in Jefferson County is long overdue.
“There have been a lot of ranges that have been closed,” he said, noting that the Golden Gun Club moved out of the city to Watkins 20 years ago due to urban growth.
With the Jefferson Parkway expected to pass right through the Blunn/Pioneer site in the coming years, Harris said the ambient noise of the area will only increase and make it even less likely that gunfire will be audible.
“I don’t think the noise is going to be an issue, especially with the parkway,” he said.
Jefferson County will hold another public meeting on the shooting range June 28, during which final noise study results will be presented.
