Eagle switches gears on Foothills shooting range. Here’s the plan and its source
The city of Eagle wants to move forward with a shooting sports park in the Foothills. But city leaders have changed their minds about where it should go.
After months of contemplating what the city could do to accommodate all of the users of the city-annexed Bureau of Land Management land in the Eagle Foothills, the city wants to start working toward a new plan for a park for local gun and hunting enthusiasts.
According to a survey by the city, about 66% of North Eagle residents want the shooting sports park, while 34% don’t. Among the opponents are hunters with homes and backyards within 1,700 feet of the proposed park.
Last summer, a series of meetings came to a head when the Eagle City Council in September approved a Foothills recreation plan to send to the BLM for approval. Now, city leaders are considering a new approach: They want to put it on an 80-acre donated parcel off Eagle Road near Beacon Light Road instead.
The park would be on land donated by GWC Capital, the owner of Spring Valley. Utah-based GWC Capital recently purchased Spring Valley, a planned community that was crushed by the Great Recession. The developers have been meeting with the city of Eagle to revive the development.
“We believe this is the better option for the shooting sports park, since the city will own the land,” said Ellen Mattila, city spokesperson, in an email. “With (the BLM option), the city would have had to make agreements with the BLM to build the shooting sports park.”
Mayor Jason Pierce hosted an open house for the project on March 9 at City Hall. According to city documents, over 200 people attended.
Kerry O’Neal, the owner of Range Design Services, who would design the shooting sports park, said he wants the park to be a “place where people can come shoot and not have any problems.”
The park would be a formalized area for shooting sports that would include pistol and rifle ranges, a shotgun firing area, archery courses and a gated law enforcement range, Pierce said during the open house.
“We are losing these places to shoot,” O’Neal said during the open house. “A big part of this was local residents and BLM were tired of picking up the trash and tired of keeping people from randomly shooting out into the hills.”
Still, some residents don’t think this is the answer to their problems with the BLM land.
Michael Faraino, who lives in a subdivision near the proposed shooting range and is a shooter himself, said the nearest home is 1,700 feet from the proposed park — about a third of a mile.
“As much as I would like to say this is a great idea, have you talked to anybody in these houses?” Faraino said during the open house. “Have you talked to us about sound mitigation? Have you talked to us about sound surveys? You are putting this literally 1,700 feet away from that house. How are you going to mitigate that sound?”
O’Neal admitted that the homes near the park would hear sounds of gunfire, but said Range Design Services would try to mitigate the sound.
According to the survey, residents who opposed the park most commonly cited recreation and open-space conflicts, residential conflicts and noise.
The City Council was scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, to take a vote on the scope of work, including a noise study and transportation/trip distribution studies.
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 5:31 PM.
