Unfortunate decision of the township board (indoor range).

[Bang]

Middletown Township, Bucks County. There was an effort to convert a property to an indoor shooting range that required a variance. Variance approved. Township board disagrees with the zoning board decision.

It is unfortunate because it would be a 50 yard rifle-rated range...something that would be nice, as available ranges are 25 yards.

[Sandcut]

What was the requested variance. That's kinda important.

[bogey1]

What was the requested variance. That's kinda important.

Sure is.

Just tell them its a LBGTSAQ range

[ray h]

Yeah, kind of important to know what the variance was and the reason it was denied before judging.

[Bang]

From The Intelligencer:


Middletown moves to shoot down approval for indoor gun range

MOST POPULAR
Never Miss A Story
Subscribe to The Intelligencer

OUR PICKS


By Thomas Friestad

Posted Feb 12, 2019 at 5:34 PM
Updated Feb 12, 2019 at 5:34 PM

The township’s zoning hearing board gave the owners of the Newport Plaza Shopping Center permission late last year to open an indoor gun range in a long-vacant retail space. Township supervisors appealed the decision last week, arguing the zoners missed their mark approving the gun range without sufficient evidence from the owners, including that the new business would not alter the neighborhood’s “essential character.”

When it came to approving an indoor gun range at the Newport Plaza Shopping Center, Middletown zoners should have held their fire, say township supervisors.

In a zoning appeal filed Friday, the supervisors contend that the township zoning hearing board erred in issuing the shopping center owner a use variance, allowing it to set up a 6,900-square-foot gun range inside the 25,000-square-foot center building off New Falls Road.

Newport Plaza Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Woodbury, New York-based Realty Resource Capital Corp., sought the variance at a December zoning hearing, as the shopping center’s commercial district does not permit gun ranges by right.

At the hearing, township zoners heard testimony from Nicholas Lostracco, a partner with Newtown Plaza Holdings, who said the gun range was to be a state-of-the-art recreational indoor shooting facility, with retail sales for firearms and ammunition plus a learning center for gun safety and gun control. The facility would be fitted with steel plating on walls and ceilings, rifle rated for 50-yard ranges, as well as rubber coating for soundproofing.

Lostracco said the gun range would go in a long-vacant retail space, once occupied by Rite Aid, that Newport Plaza Holdings had been unsuccessful in leasing. Current tenants in the center include Citizens Bank, Dollar General, Tony’s Old Fashion Meat Store and The Hidden Reef aquatic pet store.

Financial difficulties do not satisfy Middletown code’s threshold for “unnecessary hardship,” required for zoners to grant a use variance, said township Solicitor James Esposito in the appeal. Meanwhile, he continued, Newport Plaza Holdings did not prove that the property’s unique physical circumstances, rather than circumstances of the landowner’s own making, inhibited reasonable development in conformance with the code.

The zoners also mistakenly wrote in their decision that Middletown’s code does not permit gun ranges or recreational indoor shooting facilities when indoor “amusement and recreational establishments or athletic facilities” are permitted in the township’s light manufacturing district, per the supervisors’ appeal.


The appeal cites Daniel Kitzmiller, a nearby property owner and an NRA chief safety range officer, who testified in December as to concerns with the gun range, including potential noise at the shopping center.

“The variance, if authorized, would alter the essential character of the neighborhood ... and substantially impair the appropriate use or development of the adjacent property” in the center, said Esposito in the appeal.

In their decision, township zoners wrote that Newport Plaza Holdings, had presented “credible evidence” that the gun range was consistent with other uses in the commercial district and would have “no negative impact upon surrounding properties or uses.”

The board conditioned its approval of the use variance on the gun range’s compliance with state and federal firearms laws.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________________

My duh....zoning board approved, township objected to the approval. I'm not judging. Just sorry it didn't work.

[esh21167]

Sure is.

Just tell them its a LBGTSAQ range

The proper term is LBGTQ+...

[Sandcut]

From The Intelligencer:


Middletown moves to shoot down approval for indoor gun range

MOST POPULAR
Never Miss A Story
Subscribe to The Intelligencer

OUR PICKS


By Thomas Friestad

Posted Feb 12, 2019 at 5:34 PM
Updated Feb 12, 2019 at 5:34 PM

The township’s zoning hearing board gave the owners of the Newport Plaza Shopping Center permission late last year to open an indoor gun range in a long-vacant retail space. Township supervisors appealed the decision last week, arguing the zoners missed their mark approving the gun range without sufficient evidence from the owners, including that the new business would not alter the neighborhood’s “essential character.”

When it came to approving an indoor gun range at the Newport Plaza Shopping Center, Middletown zoners should have held their fire, say township supervisors.

In a zoning appeal filed Friday, the supervisors contend that the township zoning hearing board erred in issuing the shopping center owner a use variance, allowing it to set up a 6,900-square-foot gun range inside the 25,000-square-foot center building off New Falls Road.

Newport Plaza Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Woodbury, New York-based Realty Resource Capital Corp., sought the variance at a December zoning hearing, as the shopping center’s commercial district does not permit gun ranges by right.

At the hearing, township zoners heard testimony from Nicholas Lostracco, a partner with Newtown Plaza Holdings, who said the gun range was to be a state-of-the-art recreational indoor shooting facility, with retail sales for firearms and ammunition plus a learning center for gun safety and gun control. The facility would be fitted with steel plating on walls and ceilings, rifle rated for 50-yard ranges, as well as rubber coating for soundproofing.

Lostracco said the gun range would go in a long-vacant retail space, once occupied by Rite Aid, that Newport Plaza Holdings had been unsuccessful in leasing. Current tenants in the center include Citizens Bank, Dollar General, Tony’s Old Fashion Meat Store and The Hidden Reef aquatic pet store.

Financial difficulties do not satisfy Middletown code’s threshold for “unnecessary hardship,” required for zoners to grant a use variance, said township Solicitor James Esposito in the appeal. Meanwhile, he continued, Newport Plaza Holdings did not prove that the property’s unique physical circumstances, rather than circumstances of the landowner’s own making, inhibited reasonable development in conformance with the code.

The zoners also mistakenly wrote in their decision that Middletown’s code does not permit gun ranges or recreational indoor shooting facilities when indoor “amusement and recreational establishments or athletic facilities” are permitted in the township’s light manufacturing district, per the supervisors’ appeal.


The appeal cites Daniel Kitzmiller, a nearby property owner and an NRA chief safety range officer, who testified in December as to concerns with the gun range, including potential noise at the shopping center.

“The variance, if authorized, would alter the essential character of the neighborhood ... and substantially impair the appropriate use or development of the adjacent property” in the center, said Esposito in the appeal.

In their decision, township zoners wrote that Newport Plaza Holdings, had presented “credible evidence” that the gun range was consistent with other uses in the commercial district and would have “no negative impact upon surrounding properties or uses.”

The board conditioned its approval of the use variance on the gun range’s compliance with state and federal firearms laws.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________________

My duh....zoning board approved, township objected to the approval. I'm not judging. Just sorry it didn't work.

Unless the "essential character" of the neighborhood is a Gun Free Zone, this is horseshit.

Sounds like it's time for the range operators to formally request a written declaration of what the essential character is. Sounds arbitrary and capricious to me.

[ray h]

This is the part that sounds fishy to me.
"The appeal cites Daniel Kitzmiller, a nearby property owner and an NRA chief safety range officer, who testified in December as to concerns with the gun range, including potential noise at the shopping center".
I wonder where this guy works as a range officer? This new range is possibly competition for where ever he works maybe?

[Walleye Hunter]

In my experience township supervisors are assholes and variances are hard to obtain. Unless the property is a downtrodden eyesore they'll usually tell the property owner to fuck off.

[Rosco the Iroc]

So he needs to put the range in a light industrial zone instead of retail.