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Thread: Brian and Shelley Hill of The Complete Combatant need some help

  1. #1
    Student
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Arizona

    Brian and Shelley Hill of The Complete Combatant need some help



    Link to GoFundMe
    We have received complaints from our neighbors about the noise coming from our live fire classes and this has gotten the attention of the Lumpkin County Board which has shut down the live fire portion of our business. We have a business license for The Complete Combatant's NON live fire classes so we are not going anywhere but the live fire portion of TCC needs your help. We needed to meet the Zoning and Planning "Special Land Use" rules to have a live fire range, which we have. There is not a "noise ordinance" here in Lumpkin County but we want to be good neighbors so we need to control the sound coming from our range. If we don't reduce the noise, the harassment and irrationality may never stop.

    •Taller back berm
    •8 foot dirt walls to enclose the shooting area ("U" shaped live fire area)
    •Plant around thirty to fifty 5-6 foot cypress trees
    •Add sound reducing panels/blankets
    •Plant additional landscaping and dirt walls as need that focus on soundproofing
    •Grotrax grass seed blankets for hills and slopes

    ​Our goal is $20,000. Between our savings and donations from others, we feel this number will put a big dent in this project. Click the button above to see how you can help. THANK YOU!
    Link to change.org petition

    Please help us save the future of shooting for sport and self defense in Dahlonega, GA.

    •This will take literally 5 seconds.....
    •Please SIGN, and then FORWARD to all your friends and family across this great Nation, The Complete Combatant's PETITION to "Save the Future of Shooting for Sport and Self Defense in Lumpkin County, GA".
    •VERY IMPORTANT! The residents of Lumpkin County's signature's matter the most to our Board Of Commissioners. PLEASE pass on to anyone you know living in our beautiful north Georgia mountains.
    •We MUST use our voice. We MUST NOT allow the hectors to have louder voices than us. We MUST stand up and NOT let people push their own agendas onto us. We have every right to not only shoot recreationally on our land but since we have met the Planning and Zoning requirement, we should be able to run our small business there as well.

    Thank you,
    Brian and Shelley
    Last edited by Yung; 09-02-2021 at 10:33 PM.

  2. #2
    Stupid question. What is the setup at the range their local police shoot at?

  3. #3
    Signed and chipped in
    I'll wager you a PF dollar™ 😎
    The lunatics are running the asylum

  4. #4
    Student
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Arizona
    Yesterday
    by Shelley Hill, Organizer
    Hi all!

    Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been snowed under researching and under getting my ducks in a row for the Commissioners "packet" (sent yesterday) and our presentation for the hearing on the 21st. I should be back on track now!

    First of all, we have named the range sound reducing project “Reduce Noise. Resume Shooting”. Catchy huh?!?

    We are happy to share with you that when we get a YES on the 21st, we are hiring a company to help us from A to Z called Environmental Noise Control (ENC). This is a “turnkey” sound reduction system with experience in ranges, construction, and many other “noise issues”. They have a modern system to test all pistol, rifle and shotgun calibers/gauges via modeling, they are expert witnesses, they will professionally guide placement of panels, and more.

    · We will prob add approximately 9 sound absorbing mobile panels. Each panel is 8 feet long and 12 feet tall with a “1 foot lever” on top that we will angle IN towards the range (as directed by ENC).

    · In addition to the sound absorbing panels on the range, we will prob add acoustic foam under the Cover’s roof PLUS add outdoor sound absorbent blankets around the edges of the Cover (as directed by ENC).

    · We will prob plant an array of sizes of Green Giant evergreens, Holly bushes and other assorted plants that don’t lose their leaves in specific places to absorb noise . Shannon Pable (Master Gardner, Eco-Terra Landscape Consultants, Certified Arborist) will take lead on this (as directed by ENC).

    Thank you for your patience,

  5. #5
    Brian and Shelley are good people. For those who may be curious, they are handling their upcoming classes (one of which I’m scheduled for) appropriately and with transparency.

  6. #6
    Student
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    Arizona


    Please show up for the hearing this week if you can. Details in the video description.

    Here's an older article in the local paper:
    https://www.thedahloneganugget.com/i...debate-lumpkin
    Gun range proposal up for debate in Lumpkin
    By Jake Cantrell on Wednesday, August 11, 2021

    ---
    “The planning department has received several code-enforcement complaints via the website, email and telephonically regarding shooting going on up Porter Springs Road,” Bruce Georgia, the county’s Director of Planning, said at the July regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners. “If you look at McDonald Road where it reaches Porter Springs, there’s three large tracts. One has a farm with cows on it on the first parcel. The next parcel over and the following parcel are all owned by one individual. The center parcel has a pavilion on it with some target ranges. I met with [Deputy Planning Director] Mary Catherine [Beutel] and the owner of the shooting range and basically brought them in and talked about what’s going on out there.”
    Once Hill told Georgia that the range was being used commercially, everything had to be put on pause.
    “Basically, he’s got a commercial business going on there,” Georgia told the board. “...The owner of the business is not the owner of the property, he’s leasing it. He has a website and they’re bringing in folks from all over to this specialized training that they do on that property. So I issued a stop work order basically and told him he needed to do a Special Land Use Approval based on noise and the commercial use of that property.”
    ---
    For Steve Sylvester, who lives with his wife Lynn around half a mile away from the range, shooting guns is not the problem.
    “We all live in the woods and we all hear gunfire,” he said. “A lot of us do shoot guns. It's not an anti-gun thing...All the people up and down my road target practice occasionally, but it's one thing to get out in your yard and shoot, but it's another thing to invite people over the internet to come and hold a class from all over the United States and shoot. I'm talking many rounds, not just a box of shells.”
    ---
    Sylvester said it seemed more often than once a month and that he isn’t the only one around with complaints about the gun range.
    “It started off slow, I was thinking maybe once a month but I never kept track of it honestly,” he said. “But I have noticed the business has picked up...The intensity has picked up. I think that's what's upset some of the neighbors, the number of times that it's being used now...None of the people that border the property have been, that I've talked to anyway and I've talked to all of them that border the property, have been happy.”
    Hill said he was surprised by the complaints, as he’d only heard from one neighbor.
    “One gentleman and I went back and forth quite a bit on text and we tried to get together... I guess he gave up and just decided to go a different way with it,” Hill said. “That was the only communication we had. We did several things to try and mitigate noise, from putting a soft berm in and a covered area. We planted trees up front, so we were trying to be good neighbors, it wasn't like we wanted to start a big brouhaha with everybody.

    For Sylvester, the problem isn’t Hill’s use of the gun range as much as it’s the system that allows it.
    “I think the bigger story here is the lack of land use protections and zoning or whatever. I think that's really the big issue,” he said “…When you look at the land use character area map for the county, when I first saw it, I thought I was in a protected area, an agricultural preservation area...but if you read the fine print in those, the land use, anything can really go anywhere. The only stipulations are the setbacks that you have to have and some other small things. It's not the preservation area you may think it is.”
    Property owners are meant to follow the land use defined for their property on the county’s character area map. However, the owner, or in Hill’s case the lessee, can make a request with the Planning Commission for variances or fill out a Special Land Use Application and go before the Board of Commissioners for approval.
    “My big point is you come to find out that if you have a large piece of land next to you, almost anything can go in next to you,” Sylvester said. “I didn't realize that. I thought I was in a protected, agricultural preservation area, but that wasn't true...I think that's the bigger issue.”
    Sylvester said he worries if the SLUA is approved that his property values could plummet, but that he’d be able to accept the result if the board implements requirements that negate the sound and preferably limit the times when excessive gunfire is allowed.
    “I think that they could do something,” he said. “There's some sound buffering things that they can implement. Something to negate the sound so it wouldn't be so intense. Definitely some sound buffering and also the times that they hold their live-fire classes. I think right now they're mostly on the weekends and the weekends are when the neighbors are off work and outside at their houses trying to relax, so I think some sort of limitation on the times should be considered.”
    ---

  7. #7
    I'm sure all those Fudds "shooting in their yards" have a safe, decently thought out range and safe backstop before they start blasting . Were I them, I would look at building a cover over the range and installing something like Troy Acoustics sound dampening tiles.
    Those can be used outdoors and are effective at noise reduction.

    Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to build an outdoor range, even in so called "gun friendly free states" these days. Some jackwagon will raise hell even if its in an unrestricted rural area. The screachers will come out of the woodwork. You need at least a couple hundred acres and about a five mile buffer from the nearest home to have a chance of pulling it off. I've long had the dream of building a place to teach and host other trainers. The only areas I can find where it is possibly remote enough are, at best, about a 1.5-2 hour drive from where I live. With a spouse who is strongly opposed to rural living, it will remain nothing but a dream. I wish them the best and will consider a donation.

    I've found that the folks who bitch and raise hell are all for doing whatever THEY want on their land, but others, not so much. I was peripherally involved in two efforts to build a facilty much like this that were shut down before groundbreaking and invested in two attempts to build skeet and trap fields that got nixed as well. And all were in "God, guts, and guns 'Murica" areas. Yeah, right. Lots of talk about supporting shooting sports and training amongst average gun owners. And talk is about the extent of their commitment.

    Edit add: thought about while posting and sent them 50 bucks. I wish them the best for a successful outcome.
    Last edited by CWM11B; 09-19-2021 at 10:25 AM.

  8. #8
    We are putting in a 280 acre site currently in Maysville NC, just slightly North east of Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune in the next county up, luckily the site backs up to Hoffman forest which is owned by the UNC college system for forestry research and is at the end of the road in the absolute middle of nowhere.... But yeah, the county commissioners here will not approve any other ranges in the county the base is in and the city of Jacksonville won't even allow indoor facilities to be approved....
    "So strong is this propensity of mankind, to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions, and excite their most violent conflicts." - James Madison, Federalist No 10

  9. #9
    Kind of like the controversy over the OLF the Navy wanted to put in in NE NC years ago. Winston-Salem won't allow an indoor range to be built within the corporate limits either. Several have tried. I'm of the opinion most gun buyers view it as a Talisman that will magically save them when whatever boogeyman comes, and they will become the ultimate gunfighter incarnate by mere posession. Thus, the blaster remains in a sock drawer or closet, unfired and untrained on.

  10. #10
    I have known of attempts to get an indoor range here almost ever since I came to town and got acquainted at the stores.
    Nope, no shooting in city limits.
    So finally, about 4 years ago, a couple of guys got together and put up a range/store in a suburban "census designated area" outside the city limits. One advertisement is "Lowest sales tax." No city tax. It has been doing well... with my help.
    The ironic part was when the mayor came out on opening day and gave an effusive speech congratulating them on their new business and thanking them for the employment. No credit to him, his predecessor could have had it in town for the previous 30 years to my certain knowledge just by steamrollering the city council.

    Our 30 year old near urban outdoor range in a neighboring town was thrown out when a real estate woman got on their city council and teamed with a real estate salesman mayor to shut us down because gunfire made the children in their much newer development run hide and scared Grandma so bad she fell out of her rocking chair. Actual statements at City Hall.
    We moved WAY out in the sticks.

    The 50 year old range in a major metropolitan area was lusted after by greedy developers, too. They were covered by the state range protection act but the developers and new nearby residents have mounted various harassments costing the club tens of thousands of dollars.
    Code Name: JET STREAM

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