KINGSTON – It was a battle
of words Monday night at a fully packed Kingston City Hall, as residents
spoke before the Planning Board’s public hearing, over an application
to open a small indoor gun range in Midtown. The matter will be decided
next month on January 11, after the Zoning Board of Appeals considers
a special use permit.
Located at 90 Prince Street, the proposed Safeshoot facility is relatively close to Kingston High School, the YMCA, the Midtown Neighborhood Center, and Planned Parenthood. Particularly, the building sits on the side street behind Planet Wings, which was once the city post office.
Opponents contend that too many children frequent the neighborhood while supporters counter the training range improves gun safety. The argument went back and forth for roughly 90 minutes, with a two-minute limit on each speaker.
Very little information brought forth addressed zoning issues. The commercial property, at first glance, appears to qualify for use as a gun range. The primary snag is a 1978 ordinance which bans firearms discharge within city limits, passed to prevent duck hunting at Kingston Point.
Soyer: “… would be a safe place”
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Adam Soyer, who is proposing the range, believes an indoor private range may pass muster.
“That is something still being looked at by corporation counsel,” said Soyer. “From my perspective, I believe the range would be a safe place; it is private property, and will only be used by licensed gun owners,” he said.
Jennifer Schwartz-Berky, newly elected Ulster County legislator for District 7 in Kingston, suggested the matter must go to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“You have to consider whether you’re interpreting this zoning as a matter of right. Without such clarity the taxpayers would be exposed to litigation otherwise,” Schwartz-Berky said.
Also, because the gun range will be a membership organization, the ZBA must issue a special use permit, to be reviewed periodically. “In our zoning, membership organizations shall not be located nearer than 50 feet to any street or property line. An area variance would be required to allow that,” Schwartz-Berky said. “Self-created difficulties are an ineligible basis in New York State for area variances. The property owner is not compelled to turn this property into a shooting range,” she said.
Ken Cooper, president of the New York Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors, and director of safety and security at Bard College, said he ran a firearms training academy at the exact same location – 90 Prince Street – back in 1990.
“If you don’t like guns, I understand that, and that’s fine, but there are a lot of guns in this county,” Cooper said. “The best way for all of us to be safe with firearms locally, is to train people correctly.”
“Tonight was a perfect example of our First Amendment and Second Amendment rights being exercised, I loved it,” Dr. Soyer said after the meeting. “It’s a polarizing topic. People that are lawful gun owners feel very strongly, and people who are anti-gun are also going to come out.”
