Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
7 <br />Board. Special Use Permits are only granted if there is evidence entered into <br />the record that the applicant conforms to accepted and adopted County policy. <br />If there is no evidence proving that the applicant has not met its burden then the <br />permit has to be issued. <br />x The Special Use Permit regulations for commercial shooting rangesare <br />different for indoor and outdoor facilities. For indoor facilities, the setback is <br />100 feet. For outdoor facilities,the setback is 300 feet. There also are buffer <br />and parking requirements. There also are regulatory standards for the height <br />and width of the berm. <br />x The regulations have existed for six months, and in that time there have been no <br />applications for new commercial shooting ranges. In Mr. Harvey’s twelve <br />years with the County there have been no applications for new commercial <br />ranges. <br />Jamie Sykes, Chief Deputy, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, briefed the group on <br />law enforcement training and on injury and property damage statistics that were <br />requested at the Committee’s June 22meeting.Since the June meeting he inquired <br />with the NC Justice Academy,the Training Coordinator within the Sheriff’s <br />Office, and state law enforcement training coordinators. He learned that there is no <br />standardized training for law enforcement officers on assessing whether someone <br />is shooting in a safe manner. Mr. Webster, who is serving on the Committee as an <br />Orange County resident and not in his capacity as a Carrboro police officer, <br />corroborated Mr. Sykes’s finding. <br />There is training on the design, construction and implementation of ranges, said <br />Chief Sykes. The main ones are offered by the National Rifle Association. The US <br />Department of Energy has a training course that is offered in Reno, Nevada. These <br />courses do not address the issues raised within this Committee about how the <br />Sheriff’s Office responds to 9-1-1 calls about gunfire. <br />Chief Sykes researched data back to 2013 that is available at the Sheriff’s Office <br />on gunshots, gun-related 9-1-1 calls, personal injury, damage to property, and <br />anything involving a gun. There was a lot of data, but much of it does not meet the <br />interests of this Committee, for example reports involving pellet guns, vandalism, <br />and criminal activity. Chief Sykes found no gun-related fatalities and no gun- <br />related personal injuries in the data. In 2013 there was one report of an improper <br />backstopleading to property damage. In that case thedamage was valued at less <br />than $100 and the two neighbors (there was a young person involved) resolved the <br />matter through conversation; no criminal charges were filed. In 2014 there were no <br />incidents. In 2015 there was one report, related to skeet shooting. The shooting was