ORANGE BEACH — The sport shooting facility set to be commercially established in Orange Beach now has "some plans in place" to deaden the noise that has tormented residents living around the …
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ORANGE BEACH — The sport shooting facility set to be commercially established in Orange Beach now has "some plans in place" to deaden the noise that has tormented residents living around the area.
Phillip West, director of Coastal Resources Department in Orange Beach, wrote the memorandum to city council suggesting the policies, procedures and schedule of fees for the shooting facility.
After a question about what could be done to mitigate the sound, West said, "We're looking at putting a building, a large building, between (the residents and the shooting range) where we're going to store our targets and equipment things to keep that shock, that recoil. That'll really deaden it or take away from it a lot."
As previously reported by GCM, the site currently is being used by the Orange Beach Police Department (OBPD) and Orange Beach Middle/High School (OBMHS) Shooting Team for practice. The site plan for upcoming additional buildings on the property was recommended for approval at last year's Dec. 9 Orange Beach Planning Commission meeting, where residents in the area spoke against the shooting range.
The shooting facility was discussed at the city's Jan. 28 committee of the whole meeting, where the topic was open to the public for comment. Some of the residents who spoke at the planning commission meeting also attended Jan. 28's public hearing and spoke to council on their issues with the range.
David Stewart, a resident on Russian Road next to the shooting facility, brought up the noise issue. He mentioned that his wife had a stroke six years ago, is now bedridden, and "her bedroom faces the shooting range."
Another neighbor, Henry Peters, spoke at the council meeting saying "it's bad" how the shooting does not seem to cease. Peters compared the gunfire to "like living in Ukraine."
"I'd invite y'all to come on out there when they start shooting," Peters said.
Stewart said he's lived there for 27 years, and "there was never a word spoken to anybody in the community" about the shooting facility. He compared the first sound of the shooting facility to "World War III." Stewart said he felt there was a lack of communication.
"I was wondering if that seems OK with you guys," Stewart said. "I mean, does that sound like community friendly action there?"
The community, Stewart said, has lost property value "I do believe, because of these shooting ranges." He spoke of a house on the corner of Russian Road, "the nicest house in our area," which the property owners were asking $1.2 million for. Stewart said he thinks they took $880,000 for it.
Councilman Jeff Silvers confirmed with Stewart that they were "in the county out there" except for the fact that Orange Beach takes care of the area's sewage. The city does own some of the surrounding property on Russian Road for city buildings and facilities.
"We're in the area where a city goes to make noise when they can't make it in their own community," Stewart said. "That's they way I see it. You would see it that way if you lived out there."
Mayor Tony Kennon responded, "That's why I live in the city, David. … You made your choice, and I don't mean to be unsympathetic but, you know, you live in the city, you know what the rules are, you live in the county, you got a pig farm next to you."
Stewart said he moved from the city "for a reason, to let you guys have it." He said another big reason for moving was changes in fishing protocols throughout the years because "it took more time to do paperwork than it did to fish."
As a builder in Orange Beach, Stewart said he would work in the city as "long as you got a place for it." Kennon brought up how "the folks that you're building next to" likely don't want something built beside them.
"There's nothing we can say that's not going to sound unempathetic," Kennon said, "but we've got to have a shooting range, and we've got to have a police training area, and it didn't matter where in Baldwin County we went, someone's going to be unhappy."
Kennon said the city has had the property the shooting range is on for a few years and that they've "always said this is what we're going to do." According to a presentation at Orange Beach's 2024 town hall meeting, the shooting range's 81 acres were acquired in April 2019.
Stewart responded that the hours of the facility have improved as none of the 6:15 a.m. shooting has been reported lately like it was before the item was presented at the planning commission meeting. Councilman Jeff Boyd said the city "addressed that immediately" after it was brought up to the commission, which councilwoman Annette Mitchell is a member of.
Boyd also told West that he would respect "anything that y'all can bring us to mitigate" the noise and he feels "this council would be open" to hearing the plans and doing "whatever we can do to help."
"It's a battle of trying to find that fine line of what we have to have, of what we want and need and trying to maintain that quality of life," Kennon said, "and I'm sorry, I think we're all sorry, that unfortunately you're probably bearing the greatest brunt of that but I don't know where else we would have put it."
According to the memorandum from West, the shooting facility's trap and skeet fields have been "substantially completed" and are now able to open for "both official skeet team school practices and for public use." It is also recommended that the facility should open for four days a week with six hours of shooting per day.
The framework of fees for shooting clay sports (trap and skeet) were also detailed in the memorandum and included an Orange Beach single membership for $125 and for non-residents $200. Additional fees would be added for family memberships.
Individual round fees would include:
These procedures, policies and schedule of fees are set to be approved at a future council meeting. Councilmember Silvers said it's a "mighty fine facility" that will "be great for our citizens."
