Converted
12-14-2005, 09:19 AM
By GEORGE ANDREASSI
george.andreassi@scripps.com
December 14, 2005
PALM CITY — A 41-acre vegetable patch near the St. Lucie County line was rezoned Tuesday by the Martin County Commission to set the stage for developing the South Florida Shooting Grounds, a club for trap- and skeet-shooting.
The commission voted unanimously to update the zoning of the agricultural property, which dates back to 1967, during a meeting at the county Administrative Center in Stuart. The new zoning allows shooting ranges.
The 41-acre shooting area is in the middle of a 640-acre tract owned by the South Florida Shooting Grounds Corp., so the shotgun blasts would not threaten public safety or infringe on nearby homeowners, said Mark Paules, a planner working on the project.
"They've isolated the area so that it's not going to be a conflict with adverse impacts to neighbors or anything like you see at other shooting ranges and gun clubs," Paules said after the commission vote.
About 3 miles west of Interstate 95 and 2.5 miles north of Martin Highway, the shooting grounds will host a private club with about 100 members, said Mark Simpson, a Hobe Sound resident and one of the owners.
The outdoor shooting facilities will be only for shotguns, not rifles or pistols.
"This is not just a good old boy club," Simpson said. "It's a gentleman's club, a controlled environment."
Members of the public will be able to call the shooting area management to arrange for a tour of the facilities and submit a membership application, Simpson said.
There is a big demand for trap- and skeet-shooting facilities, said Doug Vine, who will manage the club. There are more than 30,000 members of a national trap-shooting organization and about 25,000 members of a national skeet-shooting group.
The club will have a "European feel," said Vine, who hails from England.
The project has been in the works for about four years, Simpson said.
"It took us a while to get everything together," Simpson. "It's a lot of land, and it's a big undertaking."
The next step is to submit a site plan for the facilities to the county Growth Management Department, Paules said. If the approval process goes smoothly, construction on the shooting grounds could begin sometime in 2007.
george.andreassi@scripps.com
December 14, 2005
PALM CITY — A 41-acre vegetable patch near the St. Lucie County line was rezoned Tuesday by the Martin County Commission to set the stage for developing the South Florida Shooting Grounds, a club for trap- and skeet-shooting.
The commission voted unanimously to update the zoning of the agricultural property, which dates back to 1967, during a meeting at the county Administrative Center in Stuart. The new zoning allows shooting ranges.
The 41-acre shooting area is in the middle of a 640-acre tract owned by the South Florida Shooting Grounds Corp., so the shotgun blasts would not threaten public safety or infringe on nearby homeowners, said Mark Paules, a planner working on the project.
"They've isolated the area so that it's not going to be a conflict with adverse impacts to neighbors or anything like you see at other shooting ranges and gun clubs," Paules said after the commission vote.
About 3 miles west of Interstate 95 and 2.5 miles north of Martin Highway, the shooting grounds will host a private club with about 100 members, said Mark Simpson, a Hobe Sound resident and one of the owners.
The outdoor shooting facilities will be only for shotguns, not rifles or pistols.
"This is not just a good old boy club," Simpson said. "It's a gentleman's club, a controlled environment."
Members of the public will be able to call the shooting area management to arrange for a tour of the facilities and submit a membership application, Simpson said.
There is a big demand for trap- and skeet-shooting facilities, said Doug Vine, who will manage the club. There are more than 30,000 members of a national trap-shooting organization and about 25,000 members of a national skeet-shooting group.
The club will have a "European feel," said Vine, who hails from England.
The project has been in the works for about four years, Simpson said.
"It took us a while to get everything together," Simpson. "It's a lot of land, and it's a big undertaking."
The next step is to submit a site plan for the facilities to the county Growth Management Department, Paules said. If the approval process goes smoothly, construction on the shooting grounds could begin sometime in 2007.