No agreement on gun club rezoning

Grand Island Dispatch, January 22, 2010

Grand Island Town Attorney Peter Godfrey briefs residents on both sides of a rezoning
request by the Sheridan Transit Rod and Gun Club during an impromptu get-together
after Monday’s Grand Island Town Board meeting. (photo by Larry Austin)

Despite encouragement by Grand Island town government for a compromise between opponents and supporters of a rezoning request by the Sheridan Transit Rod and Gun Club, no resolution of the matter satisfactory to both sides is on the horizon.

The club has tabled its request to rezone property at 551 Ransom Road from R1D (residential) to CR (commercial recreation), which would allow members to improve its facilities. The club has sought a negotiated solution to the matter with Ransom Road neighbors opposed to the plan, but Marty Remmes, president of the club, said a meeting between the club and opponents last Friday went poorly. An impromptu discussion at the request of the Town Board and mediated by Town Attorney Peter Godfrey also ended without a resolution.

The gun club’s existence predates town zoning laws, and as such is an entirely legal non-conforming use in a residential neighborhood. Under the law, the club cannot expand or improve a non-conforming use, Godfrey said, in the manner in which it would like, but the town also can’t tell the club members how to use their property.

Neighbors on Ransom Road have argued that a rezoning and subsequent expansion of the club would increase noise and traffic and thereby lower property values, among other complaints.

Club membership would rather see the matter “ironed out, and come to an amicable agreement, but that doesn’t look very promising,” Remmes said Monday. They had requested the town table their request, which they brought before the Town Board in October.

“We were advised by council that we weren’t ready to have them vote on it yet,” Remmes said.