Wednesday, December 05, 2012 - Regular Planning ... - Polk County

demands upon infrastructure will remain minimal for the proposed expansion and available
infrastructure in this area is sufficient to support the proposed use.
While the proposal will result in an increase in the number of permitted visitors to the site, the
impacts of the site do not expand toward any of the existing neighboring residents. The nearest
residential use is more than ¼ mile east of the site. There have been no Code Violations on this site
since it began operations in 2009.
The primary increase in impacts is anticipated to come in the form of sound impacts and a slight
increase in traffic. Staff evaluated the sound impacts of the site by monitoring gun fire from the site
at the point of the nearest residence east of the site. The gun shots were slightly audible above the
existing noises of the area. These impacts were the equivalent to the sound of popcorn popping in an
adjacent room of the house and were not objectionable.
Development Review Committee
Findings of Fact
1. This application is for expansion to an approved existing firearms training facility to allow
competitive shooting events and increase the number of shooting bays, and add a 16,900
square foot clubhouse building, a 3,600 square foot classroom building, and other accessory
structures on 36 total acres.
2. The site is located within the Agricultural Residential Rural (A/RR) land use district within
the Rural Development Area (RDA). This area of the County consists of citrus groves, sod
farms, improved pasture, hay fields, and heavily wooded areas.
3. This use is considered to Recreation, High Intensity, and requires Level 3 Conditional Use
approval in the A/RR land use district.
4. The facility currently uses on-site private wells and septic tanks.
5. According to the Soil Survey of Polk County, this site contains primarily Smyrna and Myakka
Fine Sands. These soils have severe limitations for dwellings without basements and septic
tanks.
6. The site is not within a one-mile radius of a protected animal or plant species siting
according to the Florida Natural Areas Inventory of 2002.
7. The site has frontage and access onto County Road 630, a two-lane rural major collector
road.
8. The site is in an area of the County that has been mostly undeveloped. The site is
surrounded by pasture, citrus groves and wetlands.
9. The northern 12 acres of this site was approved as a firearms training facility in 2008 and
has been in operation ever since.
DRC Findings/Recommendation Page 2 of 10
Level 3/TDW 11/21/2012 2:04:31 PM CU 08-04M December 5, 2012