Commission shoots down zoning for 'sporting park'
11/19/2009 8:25 PM   1 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend

The Aiken County Planning Commission said it recommends a request to rezone property in east Aiken be denied, not because the applicant wishes to hold skeet shooting events there, but because the proposed zoning is not appropriate for the area.

The Commission voted unanimously to recommend to Aiken County Council the request be denied after hearing comments from the applicant, Sean Power, who looks forward to opening an "outdoor sporting park," and property owners in the area who are not pleased to hear such a park is the intended use.

"I move to recommend that Council disapprove the rezoning because RUD is a down zoning and not appropriate for this area," Commissioner Dennis Gmerek said.

Aiken Council County will consider the request at its Dec. 8 meeting.

The land in question is located on the east side of town in the Rushton Road area and within 1,000 feet of East Aiken Elementary. The request seeks that it be rezoned to rural development (RUD) from industrial (IND).

RUD zonings do not permit shooting range-type uses.

Power said it is his intent to open the park only to sanctioned activities such as corporate outings and 4-H shooting events. The park would not be open to the public and the public would not be available to apply for membership.

"I want to take those events that go on in other parts of the state and bring them into this community," Power said.

The floor was then opened to members of the audience if they wanted to speak. All but one audience member who spoke opposed the outdoor sporting park. The other abstained from stating his opinion on the matter.

Commission Chairman Andrew Marine and other commissioners reminded the audience several times that the issue at hand was the rezoning itself, not the intended use for the property.

But those who spoke said it was hard to separate one issue from the other.

Area resident Darryl Messer collected 32 signatures from people who are against the rezoning.

"This is going to be detrimental to our quiet community," he said. "This is going to be something that is noisy. I have looked on the Internet about shooting ranges. I have read that property values in the area of gun ranges lower up to 25 percent."

"A school is right there," said property owner Deborah Foot. "Children walk up and down the 118 Bypass. What happens if a stray shell goes and kills one of the children?"

Pet Bernard said her pets would be traumatized by the shooting and that it would drive away the area's "woodland creatures."

Commissioners asked Power whether he and Satcher had considered a planned-use development (PUD) zoning that would allow only the skeet range and nothing else, concerned that RUD would leave the property open to many other, less desirable uses.

Power said County Planning and Development staff had not recommended any zonings other than RUD.

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