Planning board forwards proposed LDR amendment to allow indoor gun ranges as conditional uses in Wallace Drive overlay, agrees to further vet noise and distance

The Delray Beach Planning & Zoning Board on Oct. 20 voted to forward to the City Commission a privately initiated amendment to the Land Development Regulations (LDRs) that would (a) add a set of “service industry” principal uses to the Light Industrial (LI) zoning district and (b) allow an indoor gun‑range use as a conditional use specifically within the Wallace Drive Overlay District. The board’s recommendation was accompanied by a discussion of noise limits, separation from sensitive uses and the role of the conditional‑use review in mitigating impacts.

Why it matters: The amendment would enable a private applicant to develop an indoor range at 1215 Wallace Drive subject to conditional‑use review while adding flexibility for service‑industry uses in LI. The Wallace Drive Overlay District is small (roughly 13 properties); the proposed approach confines the potentially controversial gun‑range use to that overlay and subjects it to additional conditional‑use scrutiny.

What the amendment would change The text amendment proposes to add “service industry” to the LI principal uses list (examples include contractor services, repair and business services) and to add a defined term, “indoor gun range,” to the definitions. The draft ordinance would then list indoor gun ranges as a conditional use within the Wallace Drive Overlay District only; the concept is that an indoor range would not be a permitted by‑right use within LI but could be approved on a case‑by‑case basis after full public review and a conditional‑use hearing.

Safety, noise and separation concerns Staff and the applicant provided comparative research showing other Florida jurisdictions adopt separation…