When the city of Apopka built the police station’s outdoor gun range in 1989, it did so mostly on country land.
However, the city’s population has since been more than four times as high as nearly 62,000 residents by 2024, with residential lots being created around the Cleveland Avenue facility.
As the number of homes grows, there are noise complaints about gun range. And the city’s police chief predicts that another new plot with around 115 homes will likely be built nearby.
“We get complaints whenever we are firing, and we’re just increasing the number of complaints that come with this,” Chief Michael McKinley said last week that the Apopka Development Review Board briefly discussed the developer’s application for land use changes and rezoning.
Still, the committee, including McKinley, recommended that the city be annexed into facilities, as requested.
“I just want to make sure that future residents know that there is a range of law enforcement firearms north of them,” McKinley said. “We’re working on getting it moving, but we’re a few years away,” he said. “And that’s the south in the direction we shoot, and that’s where the noise goes.”
The land owners wanted 40 acres of land from Sealer Avenue, annexed to Apopka, and the city council moved it forward. The final vote will be set for July 16th.
During the meeting, Jonathan Fells, the attorney representing the owner, was asked about the scope and proximity to the proposed development.
“It’s over 1,000 feet away and is separated by existing subdivisions,” Huels said there is a slide indicating that the property’s location is on a larger screen.
He noted that the development committee asked home buyers to notify them of “the presence of gun range and nearby subdivisions.” The developer said, “We agree to do that and we’ll be provided with a notification.”
Huels refused to speak to the Orlando Sentinel Reporter at meetings about the project or to identify the developer.
McKinney also refused to be interviewed, but emailed Sgt. Kimberly Walsh said the police department uses gun range twice a week for drills using live ammunition, usually from 8am to 6pm on weekdays.
The department has not counted any noise complaints from the range, she said.
“However, over the years when ranges are used for law enforcement purposes, our communications centres receive calls regarding shots being fired in the area.
Built primarily in the early 2000s, the Meadow Oaks plot is located across the street, about 500 feet below a gravel road surrounded by dense woods, almost entirely over the gravel road. The signs on the property, surrounded by high fencing and barbed wire, are the training facility of the Apopka Police Station, which states that visitors must check in at the police station about two miles away. Just west of the range is the city’s Public Services Department.
A woman who rented a Meadow Oaks House and refused to give her name, said that when she moved to the neighborhood two years ago, she was not told about the range.
“It’s like ‘Police POW, POW, POW, POW, POW, POW, POW,” she said of the noise. “It interrupts my morning rest, but I’m used to it now.”
The woman said she didn’t want to buy a house, given the very close range.
