Sporting clays in Goochland

 

 

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Goochland supports the Second Amendment rights of its residents. Intermittent gunfire is a familiar sound in the more rural parts of the county, but how close to homes should a shooting range be located?

At its August 20 meeting, around 3 a.m., the Goochland Planning Commission voted 3-1 to recommend denial of a conditional use permit application filed by Virginia Sports Park to build a recreational sporting clays shooting and archery range facility in western Goochland. Commissioner Amanda Kowalski District 2 was absent.

The application, which had been repeatedly deferred from the planning commission hearing at the request of VSP since January 2026, is currently scheduled to move on to the board of supervisors for final vote in October. In the interim, additional community meetings and resulting revisions to the application, including moving the site, occurred.

The location of the proposed facility is a 125-acre portion of 359 acres owned by Luck Stone, located just north of I-64 on Old Fredericksburg Road near Hadensville. Luck was granted a CUP in 1997 to operate a quarry on the site that allowed blasting from 9:30 to 3:30 Monday through Friday. The staff report indicates that Luck could submit a plan of development to the county to begin quarry operations at any time.

As presented, the proposed use is for a “Non-Profit Youth Oriented Sporting Clays and Archery facility. This facility will be open to the public with specific programs and benefits to the youth in general to include youth groups such as, Boy Scouts, 4-H, Young Life, Scholastic and Collegiate, and youth Archery groups,” which VSP contends would bring recreational opportunities and tourism revenue to the county.

During the public hearing, a wide range of comments were made both in support and opposition to the application. Noise, proximity to existing homes, traffic, and environmental threats posed by lead leaching into ground water were the main objections. The county wants the site fenced to prevent people wandering into the line of fire, but VSP contended it is not necessary.

Guy Kemmerly, District 1, said he believed that the sound studies performed to gauge the impact of the sound of shooting were flawed and that obtaining an accurate, impartial measure is complicated and difficult. Curt Pituck, District 4 observed that the repetitive shooting sound is annoying. Martin Dean, District 5 asked if an environmental cleanup bond should be included as a condition. VSP said that its lease with Luck required an environmental stewardship plan, which does not require a bond. The staff report wanted a clearly defined plan to remove lead from the site.

VSP’s sound engineer said that sound mitigation could be verified in the CUP area. He opined that distance and berms take out the lion’s share of the noise and that modeling of a specific site could provide more detail.

Hours of shooting, days when shooting is allowed, numbers of stands allowed to be built and how many of them may be in operation at one time, were also revised. As most of the shooting seems to be scheduled for daytime weekdays when kids are in school it seems contradictory that this will be youth oriented.

VSP contended that the proposed facility will boost tourism revenue for the county but gave few specifics. There are few businesses nearby. The nearest hotel is in Centerville. Food trucks, ideally Goochland based, would feed patrons of the facility. On-site restroom facilities would be built for regular attendance but would need to be supplemented with porta potties for tournaments, which could draw more than 100 participants.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, revisions VSP makes to its application on the way to the supervisors’ vote. Stay tuned.