The Juneau Assembly Monday takes up the appeal of a permit for an indoor shooting range and gun store under construction near the Juneau International Airport.
The Assembly plays a quasi-judicial role in the case brought by Juneau Veterans for Peace against the Planning Commission’s permit for Juneau Mercantile and Armory.
The Planning Commission in December approved a conditional use permit for a 13-thousand square foot building that would sell guns as well as rent guns to be used in an underground shooting range – including automatic weapons.
The Juneau Veterans for Peace chapter appealed the permit, saying the CBJ development staff did not thoroughly review the effect of the operation on “public health or safety.”
Assembly member Loren Jones has been liaison to the parties. He had been hopeful a settlement could be reached, but those negotiations failed. He admits he was overly optimistic.
“I think the parties just have a different view of what should have taken place. And it’s nothing the Assembly can sort of broker. We expressed our desire to them if they could reach a settlement, but it’s basically between those two parties,” Jones says.
At Monday evening’s meeting, Veterans for Peace and Juneau Mercantile and Armory – represented by the CBJ Community Development Department — will each have 30 minutes to make a presentation. Both have briefed the issue and Assembly members have those documents. Jones says the Assembly will listen and ask questions then discuss the issue in a closed door session after Monday’s regular Assembly meeting.
“The decision’s not really public until after we’ve reviewed what the (city) attorney’s written up based on our conversation. Then if we want to revise it, we can do that. Then it will come back to a full Assembly meeting. And the Assembly will make that decision public once we reach agreement amongst all of our members,” he says.
Jones expects the Assembly’s final decision on the permit would be release later this month. Monday’s meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in Assembly chambers at city hall, followed by the regular meeting of the Assembly at 7 p.m. The regular meeting will be carried live on KTOO Radio.
