The Fluvanna County Planning Commission denied Central Virginia Sport Clays’ request for an amendment to its Special Use Permit. After hours of public comment made for and against an amendment to the permit to allow for additional hours, the Planning Commission voted 4-2 to deny the application on Feb. 23. Central Virginia Sport Clays is owned by J. Bradley Landseadel and his wife Cheryl.

“It sounds like a great business, but I wouldn’t want it in my back yard,” said commission member James Halstead of Troy after hearing accounts from neighbors of noise they ascribe to the clay shooting range.

Mary Lee Blakely, 81, lives near the facility. “I have to live with constant ‘pop-pop, pop-pop, pop-pop,’” she says. “I was going to stand here and do that for three minutes, but I figured you’d throw me out.”

“It sounds like war time,” says nearby resident Barbara Carlson. “That kind of noise is not being a good neighbor.”

Others who were present offered that people who live in this rural area are used to the sounds of guns going off, as shooting is a legal activity that is not restricted to certain hours or days of the week (unlike hunting) in Fluvanna. County resident Wallace Browning said he can hear the shooting, “but it doesn’t bother me.”

Robert Welch, who lives three-quarters of a mile away, said on a quiet day he could hear faint shots coming from the area of the facility. He says hunters in the area use high-powered rifles that create louder sounds, and that some people exaggerate about hearing gunshots going off “day and night, night and day.”

Some spoke in support of Landseadel’s personal character and his level of professionalism in business. Philip Van Cleave of Virginia Citizens Defense League stepped up to show “strong support for Landseadel’s project.”

The owners had hoped to make changes to their business which would benefit more experienced shooters and extend operating hours to include Sunday mornings so that they could offer weekend sporting events a few times a year; however, unless the county’s Board of Supervisors decides to disregard the commission’s recommendation, the couple may not be able to do so.

“What happens next is, [the request to amend] is going to go to the Board of Supervisors,” commission member Sam Babbit, of Fork Union, said. “[The supervisors] have to look at that now and come up with their own suggestions, if they choose to pass [the amendment].”

Babbit said it is more helpful if the planning commission makes changes to certain parts of a project they dislike. “I think it’s generally a little more helpful, when issues are not to our likings, if we’re going to change that and then approve of the changes—I was a little surprised there was enough votes to just plain, old deny it.”

In total, the planning commission heard from 49 individuals, 23 of whom were opposed to Central Virginia Sporting Clays’ proposal.

“I was a little disappointed because when you deny something based on one part of a project, which I think it was all about: Sunday noise,” Babbit said. “[Landseadel] had some other issues that were viable, so I didn’t want to deny it.”

The ultimate decision is up to the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors. Another Public Hearing will be held at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 16 at the Fluvanna County Courts Building in its Circuit Court room.