The Lenexa Planning Commission has given the green light to a new indoor gun range and firearms training business.
On Monday, it approved a preliminary plan and a three-year special use permit for gun retailer Range USA to open a new location on the corner of 107th Street and Santa Fe Trail Drive, within the Park-Len Industrial Estates business park.
Both items passed 7-0, with Commissioner Sunny Dharod absent.
In addition to selling firearms and ammunition, Range USA also offers gun safety courses, target practice, billing itself as the world’s largest operator of indoor gun ranges.
It has 50 locations in the U.S., including one in the Northland area of Kansas City, Missouri, and others throughout the Midwest and Texas. This would be the first location in Kansas.
“We will be good corporate citizens, looking forward to coming into Lenexa,” Kevin Ali, a representative for Range USA, told the planning commission.
The location will have nearly 20 shooting lanes
The proposed 10,235-square-foot building will include 18 shooting lanes, two classrooms and 2,600 square feet of retail space.
When asked by Commissioner Curt Katterhenry about the safety of the building if stray bullets get shot into the walls, Ali clarified that the shooting lanes will have military-grade protection built in.
“It’s basically a concrete box inside of a concrete box,” he said.
The exterior of the building is concrete, Ali said, while the range is encapsulated in an additional layer of concrete to soften noises and projectiles.
“At the back of this concrete box is a rubber bullet trap system and that is [the] same system” that the U.S. military uses, he said. “After building (Range USA locations) this many times, we’ve gotten pretty good containing noise and contained projectiles.”
A location has been in the works for 3 years
Range USA had plans to build a location in Lenexa in 2022, but delayed moving forward at that time because of economic concerns, Ali said.
With the Lenexa location back on the table, Ali said the business will be conservative with how much of the property site they use.
“We’re going to under-utilize this site. It could handle a much bigger building, (with a) much more (dense parking lot). But for us right now, the 10,200 square foot building with around 55 (parking space) is what we’d like to do,” he said.
Because it is a gun range, Ali said security and safety are important factors to the business.
“We have range safety officers in our shooting range at all times. We have them camera-ed and monitored, as well,” he said,
The property will feature a well-lit parking lot and the building will have glass break and vibration sensors and a hurricane shutter on the front door to prevent break-ins.
“If your police department would like, we’ll give them have access to our cameras, so we can all see if it’s a raccoon crawling on a ventilation duct or if it’s a nefarious purpose,” he said.
Planning Commission was satisfied with presentation
While no one from the public spoke during the public hearing, several planning commissioners expressed satisfaction with the proposed plans.
“I was supportive of this when it came in before. And the three-year permit allows us the time — and the business development around it the time — that if there are any noise issues or security issues that they would have time to address that. So I’m supportive of it again,” Commissioner David Woolf said.
In closing, Chris Poss, chairperson for the planning commission, expressed his support, too.
“I think the location of this makes a lot of sense to me. It’s kind of been an industrial area in the city here, so I don’t really have any concerns with this project here at all,” he said.
More Lenexa business news: Cookie Co. reopens stores in Lenexa and Overland Park after being closed nearly a year
