Mt. Lebanon moves site of proposed rifle range
A revised site plan calls for a new rifle range to be built at Mt. Lebanon’s public works facility instead of the municipal golf course.
During their Jan. 9 discussion session, Mt. Lebanon commissioners agreed to have the revisions proceed through the planning process after voting in December to approve a land development plan that designated the golf course as the location for the range.
The proposed changes come on the heels of Keystone Oaks School Board’s Dec. 12 vote to limit the range’s use “for law enforcement only,” effectively barring Mt. Lebanon High School’s rifle team from practicing and hosting matches there.
Under the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, Keystone Acts had a say in the usage because the golf course site is within 1,000 feet of the district’s Myrtle Avenue Elementary School in Castle Shannon.
Another factor in maintaining the range within the public works property involves decisions by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state Department of Environmental Protection to reassign portions of the property designated as a flood plain. Those actions allow for a flat area near the southern end of the site to accommodate a new building and related parking spaces, municipal planner and assistant manager Ian McMeans told commissioners.
He said that the design of the 5,400-square-foot structure remains the same as proposed for the golf course, with access to be provided directly by a new entry road off Cedar Boulevard.
“We believe there are a number of benefits that this could provide to the site,” McMeans said. “It would consolidate our construction all onto one location, and it would also continue to provide the separation of uses, which is important for public works in the project.”
Public works director Rudy Sukal elaborated, particularly with regard to where equipment is stored in relation to areas used by the public.
“It’s not going to be like pulling a car in and out of your garage,” he said. “We’re going to have things on forklifts, on chains, on hoists, which we’re going to need some space beside that to set things down, pick them up and move them around in order to configure our equipment through different seasons.”
He also said the new design for the site would help contain the “laydown” area provided for contractors to store materials while working on projects in the municipality.
“Things tend to migrate out if you give contractors or other people areas to use and you don’t kind of define those areas,” Sukal explained.
Construction of a new rifle range is included in Mt. Lebanon’s Department of Public Works Master Plan, drafted in 2014, to provide better training opportunities for police officers, whose qualification testing requires a longer range than is provided at the current building.
The high school rifle team has been without a home range since the district declined to include a new one in its $110 million renovation of the school. The team, which has competed interscholastically since 1933, currently is based at Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club in North Strabane Township.