I'd mentioned this in an earlier thread, figured it might deserve a post of its own.

If you're a Treasure Valley, Idaho shooter and want to give input or support to a new range complex to be built in Eagle (suburb NW of Boise), there's an open house this week. The purpose is to hear what they've got planned and "receive community input" afterwards.

Personally, I'm stoked that the city is going to develop a nice and safe shotgun-rifle-pistol shooting range in the formerly-restricted BLM land area north of the downtown. Be closer than any other public range for Star, Emmett, Eagle, Meridian, North Ada Co. folks. And, of course, it'll be interesting to see if there's any anti-gun/anti-range opinions that will show up at the City Hall meet.


WHERE - WHEN - WHAT INFO: Open House: Eagle Shooting Sports Park, Wednesday, March 9, 2022

I was kind of surprised to see on Nextdoor com (which can often be a sea of hand-wringing transplant opinions there) that all the comments were "Great! We'd love a place to shoot skeet!" and such.

Yeah, a lot of people in favor of it... Mayor, former chief, etc... I just got a "We'll be there" email from the 'Retired Law Enforcement Officers of Idaho' group... I honestly haven't heard anyone against it, and have been keeping an eye out for that viewpoint.

My main concern is that they're going to have some distance. I'd love to see 500-1000 yard KD bays, but the mockups look shorter.




Not sure what this meeting will be like. The plan has already been hashed out over the past year. I assume tonight will be presenting the more-or-less finalized concept to citizens that weren't already aware of the last couple year's talks on this, so I think it's to be more show-and-tell than hours of debates.

For background, if anyone wants to see any of the planning, BLM rule changes, and environmental impact studies and whatnot, those are online: Foothills Recreation Plan 2021
Notice of August 2021 meeting: https://www.cityofeagle.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=225&ARC=409

If you wander through that document, you'll see that the guys from Eagle's own Range Design
Services were involved in the planning, along with some other known friendlies to the shooting sports.
(If you don't know RDS, we just happen to have a national-level company HQ'd here in our backyard that builds major shooting facilities for a lot of federal and military ranges all around the country. Squared away nice guys, it would be a crime to not see them utilized on this from a safety/engineering perspective.)


I'll head down there tonight, and play "Spot the ARFCOMMERs".

AAR / Post-Open-House Observations:
• The shooting community has a lot of grey hair. Boomers out in force.  
Seriously, the place was packed, and the demographic was overwhelmingly "pro" shooting sports park.

There were some legitimate "Hey, that range is 1700 feet from my driveway" concerns, and there were the expected comments about increased traffic, noise abatement, equestrian trail users getting kicked out of their traditional areas, etc. However, almost all concerns were still couched with "I'm gun friendly, I shoot, but... y'all gonna scare my horses and block my driveway." kind of themes.

I would say that almost everyone with negative waves seemed to be unclear on where the park is to be located. All the people that were giving stinkeye think it's their backyards in the original Homer Rd. location, but it's been moved to Willow Creek & Aerie Rd. area. See map:


What I don't think the anti's got, is that the status quo is "people can shoot on BLM land in any direction, at any time, with no particular backstop or rules." The proposed range facility will at least get everyone shooting in the same away direction, with safety berms, attempts at noise abatement, and increased safety. Shrug. Or we could go back to just free shooting at midnight on the BLM land that abuts that one angry guy's backyard.

Notes:

• Range is nice: small, more private-feeling bays so you're not on a large, free-for-all line... emphasis on calling ranges cold affects fewer people.
• Shotgun sports areas are envisioned, but there's no stands or throwers, it's BYO right now. A bunch of people commented that fixed, permanent stands/throwers would add to the safety and permanence of it. I don't shoot shottys, but agree that people setting up janky throwers ad hoc isn't the way to go.
• Rifle ranges are limited to 150 or so, due to the new location, that's about as good as it gets, so I won't complain, but commented to do what they could to make longer ones.
• There's proposal for police to have their own training bays with a separate gate. Police agencies would pay the city for use, so that money-injection would help fund the rest of the range.
• It's supposed to be manned, with key-card controlled access. This means "user fees". Probably sell yearly memberships as well as daily rates.

Anyone wanting to make suggestions and/or submit an "In Favor" comment, here's the Post-Open House Survey for Eagle residents.

Funny thing is, the week the city lifted the shooting restrictions on BLM land, I drove out to that very lot they're using to shoot... lots of horse trailers, some hikers. Didn't end up shooting then, but have used that hill at the entrance as a backstop with .22lr when no one's there.

Yeah, more bays would be great. I do appreciate their plan of using safer, small/semi-private bays, but I could see the park having waits on busy summer weekends with the small amount of lanes/bays.

Longer distances would have been nice. Would have liked to see 500-1000 yards optimally, but I was hoping they could squeeze in 300, realistically. I was going to speak to that at the Open House, but I'd already talked to the RDS guys who said that property really can't fit anything much longer, so... the 150 yard max is probably the way it's going to be. Can't complain, it's a nice park. Taking what you can get in this case is better than nothing.

I asked if they'd explored the idea of renting the LE bays for training classes. It didn't seem like it had crossed anyone's minds. Just guessing, but that might end up being something an instructor would negotiate with the LE agency that pays for that side of the range, not the park itself.