Despite talk of settlement at a recent pre-appeal hearing, Veterans for Peace will continue to pursue its appeal of the Mercantile and Armory indoor gun range.
Veterans for Peace Juneau Chapter president Phil Smith and owners of the Mercantile and Armory LLC met with City and Borough of Juneau Assembly Member and appeal hearing officer Loren Jones and CBJ Senior Planner Greg Cheney Jan. 17 for a pre-appeal hearing in City Hall conference room 224.
The appellant said the city’s planning commission did not offer sufficient public discourse on the project and permit application before approval. That public health and safety was not adequately taken into account.
Cheney represents the CBJ Planning Commission in the appeal.
“We respectfully disagree that this was not done properly,” Cheney said. He called the appeal a “baseless accusation.”
The commission approved the Armory’s Conditional Use Permit 20120016 on Dec. 11, 2012. Smith submitted an appeal for Veterans for Peace on Jan. 2.
Appellees and Armory owners CBJ Assembly Member Dan Miller, Sloan Swendsen and Jason Tarver were all in attendance. Swendsen said the public record sufficiently documents the concerns in Veteran’s for Peace’s appeal. The appellees asked the city to compile a report detailing the permit’s public discourse — the CBJ Planning Commission and Assembly have both held public hearings of the permit.
Dan Miller, Jason Tarver and Sloan Swendsen incorporated the Armory on Aug. 13, 2012. Miller said Smith’s concern for safety is unfounded.
“The range instructors are all [National Rifle Association] certified,” Miller said. “The safety classes are all NRA. Family and home gun safety. Gun safety for kids.”
Miller also disagreed that the process went too fast.
“We applied for this back in August. I wish you would have come to some of the meetings,” Miller said to Smith.
Located on the corner of Yandukin Drive, Crest Street and Airport Boulevard the proposed 13,000-square-foot Mercantile and Armory would house a 10-lane indoor gun range below ground level and a retail space on the first floor. The Armory owners have said the shooting range would be encased in concrete and insulated for sound.
City planner Cheney agreed to return its report by Jan. 29. The appellant and appellees then have until Feb 7 to respond. From Feb. 7 to Feb. 10 the parties can respond to each other. Hearing officer Loren Jones scheduled a second pre-appeal hearing for Feb. 12. Veterans for Peace can offer to settle the appeal or continue at this meeting.
After the pre-hearing meeting the Armory owners held an informal discussion to see if they could find common ground before going through all the paper work of an appeal. As the four men left the conference room, Swendsen said, the Armory owners had decided to wait until further along in the process to comment.
“One thing we are trying to avoid is a lot of animosity, a lot of accusatory finger-pointing, name calling,” Smith said after the meeting. “There are literally hundreds of people in this town who have indicated a great concern about this. That sensitivity was not displayed in the city staff’s analysis of the project.”
Juneau resident Dixie Hood requested to join Veterans for Peace as an appellant. Smith declined.
“Guns are just all over the place in Alaska,” Hood said. “It is an ongoing concern for me.”
Hood said she was worried by the thought that more youth would have easier access to firearms. She said youth who have easy access to guns and who may feel comfortable around guns are more likely to have a gun-related accident or commit suicide with a gun. Poor judgment and peer pressure could result in trouble, she said.
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (45)
Add commentMs. Hood, Please consider
Ms. Hood,
Please consider moving to CA.
They have already Highly regulated firearms...and as a result there is little to no crime and Never a suicide!
Safe travels to you Ma'am and please forget to write.
Glacierdogs,
I don't know much about the Juneau chapter of VFP. Who knows what a few members of the organization do with their spare time. At any rate, the VFP, which is a national organization including thousands of members across the country, is still heavily protesting Obama's military actions, most notably his use of drones in killing civilians. What you say, as it's written, is a lie. If you want to backpeddle, go ahead. I'm just pointing out what you wrote previously and how it's not true.
HHMmmm,
Untill this incident, I don't recall any mention of them in the last few years? Anywhere
THE 5 WORST/RECENT....
MASS MURDERS IN THE USA (with a firearm) CAME FROM DEMOCRATS.
The five worst mass killings, where a firearm was used, have a common thread.
Hint # 1.
They didn't belong to the NRA. They don't fit the stereotype of the "redneck" gun owner.
CHECK IT OUT:
Ft. Hood: Registered Democrat/Muslim.
Columbine: Too young to vote, both families were Registered Democrats and Progressive Liberals.
Virginia Tech: Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff.
Colorado Theater: Registered Democrat, Staff Worker on the Obama campaign, Occupy Wall Street participant, progressive liberal.
Connecticut School Shooter: Registered Democrat, Hated Christians.
Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive liberal democrats.
Also, of the worst killings in the last several decades, only one was a female, all the rest were boys, barely men. Their role models were RAPPERS, ACTION MOVIES, COMICS and VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES.
Our problem isn't weapons, it's boys without boundaries, who live in progressive households.
The source of information for this post came from Roger Hedgcock"s !-17-2013 radio show.
WOW, HB,
Do you really believe we could??
;-)
chain email reading wingnuts should be shunned, taku...
taku2, are you admitting you are one these dingbats who reads a chain email and believes it without ever factchecking it?
fort hood shooter, hasan, was a muslim extremist. Ultraconservative muslim extremist.
Dylan klebold and Eric Harris, high school students with a knack for shooting guns.
Adam Lanza was registered democrat and hated christians? Where did you get this information from? No one has anything on him. His mother, who is dead, kept him from receiving the help he needed. His brother hadn't seen him in years. His Father was out of the picture.
Colorado theater shooter, james holmes, was reported to be a registered democrat by a breitbart blogger, although shortly after, the blog was corrected with a note stating there was no evidence of his voter registration. You people...
Cho wrote a scathing letter to then president bush, VP cheney, and secretary rice, and even comparing himself to jesus christ. End of story.
jared loughner, registered independent.
taku2, You should be ashamed of yourself for being too lazy to spend 10 minutes factchecking a chain email you believed with no background information whatsoever. Even cherrypicking these examples doesn't lead to your conclusion. There's no excuse for dumbing down these message boards as people like you do all too frequently.
cheeesypoof & spiff
The idea that recent mass shooters are mostly registered Democrats is a myth
Mass Shootings
January 20, 2013
By: Keith Darling-Brekhus
The above writer penned an article that was intended to discredit "Right Wing" talk show hosts in general.
You can find this article on Roger Hedgecock's web page.
A couple of comments to the article are as follows:
Crystal Clinton.
"I didn't read once where the writer referred to anyone as 'Left-Wing', I only read 'Right-Wing'. So, despite the writer's comments that suggest no preference for either political party, he sure does spend a lot of time defending Democrats"
Kathy Tobacco
"Brekhus proved nothing. He only reported non conclusive conjecture. But I can prove that these 5 are all leftist. The press only investigates for evidence that a murder is from the right." etc.
Thus, the Brekhus article has no more substance than the
"chain letter" (which I did not see) Than the claim that all the shooters were Democrats. But it is very likely that they are. Guess I should say 'were'.
FUN!
I can't wait to be able to shoot my guns in a warm dry place ran by people who love guns too!
Cheesy
Obviously it's not a lie because your only response (instead of saying it didn't happen exactly as I said it did - which it did) is to say you don't know much about the Juneau chapter of VFP. Well that is the only "chapter" I know anything about; I didn't even know there is (if you are correct) any VFP outside of Juneau. However, I did know about the Swiftboat-Kerry people, and I would take a wild guess that VFP is the current generation of that outfit.
Glacierdogs,
the VFP is a national organization and the Juneau chapter is called the Juneau chapter. If you want to specify you were only discussing the juneau chapter then do so. Otherwise you are discussing the VFP organization itself which has thousands of members, the majority of which do NOT live in Juneau. I was correcting your uninformed assertion and if I was wrong then you should provide some evidence of the VFP taking Obama's side instead of an observation you personally may or may not have made.
As far as the swiftboating/john kerry group, if the VFP represents partisan democrats as you have suggested, why would you make the connection with those who attempted to discredit John Kerry's presidential run? You realize John Kerry is a democrat, correct? You may need to explain yourself better on this issue.
Proposed Gun Range
Well, it seems that a few socalled "Well intentioned" Cry Babies, want to get their outfits Name in the News, because they were not smart enough, to voice their objections, at the appropriate Public Hearings, when they were held as per Borough Code. Now we see some credentialed Boozo, with some very strange ideas about FireArms, wanting to join the Cry Babies, in their misguided whining, but they do not want to be associated with the Boozo, and decline.... Have I got this RIGHT? It would seem that all these folks need to get a life, and recognize that the better part of their neighbors, DO WANT this Facility, and are willing to see it built. I, for one will definitely use it, when I come to town, and look forward to such use, and applaud, the Owners, and Operators, for there business Plan. Who knows, I just might PAY THE $200US for an NFA Tax Stamp, and bring in an NFA FireArm, to test out. I have already passed all the Reglatory hurdles, as I hold a couple of FFL Licenses. So bring it on, and let's get this place in operation.