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Residents urge Randolph County commissioners to require noise mitigation at TASK gun range, cite transparency concerns
Summary
Multiple residents told the Randolph County Board of Commissioners that noise from the TASK gun range on Fuller Mill Road is a continuing nuisance, urged the board to change the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) or otherwise require mitigation, and criticized the county for lack of transparency in records and permitting.
At a Randolph County Board of Commissioners meeting, several residents urged the board to take action on noise from the TASK gun range on Fuller Mill Road and to be more transparent about the legal and permitting documents that govern the site.
The speakers said they were not asking the county to close the range but to regulate noise and to make public records and permitting decisions available. “The county is losing more and more tax revenue due to this nuisance,” Amy Wang said, noting she had reviewed the club’s 2024 filing and said the club had about $188,000 in the bank as of Dec. 31, 2024.
Why it matters: Nearby residents describe ongoing disruption and say the county has legal options—including changes to the UDO or amortization rules used by other counties—to require sound remediation. Speakers also argued that the county’s own Code of Ethics and standards for open government require clearer explanations when the board decides not to act.
Residents pressed two lines of concern: noise impacts on nearby homes, and the county’s handling of records and ordinances. Isaac Hoffman read passages from the Randolph County commissioners’ code of ethics, saying, “Transparency and candor should be maintained at all times” and arguing that a failure to explain legal barriers to action violates that standard. Fritz Wang said the gun range used a prior UDO loophole and that later UDO revisions closed that loophole; he urged commissioners to “regulate the noise level coming from the range. You have the power. Please do something.”
Speakers referenced examples in other North Carolina counties—Jones, Onslow, Pitt, Caswell and Scotland—where the board said local governments used amortization periods (described by speakers as six to 12 months) to bring existing operations into compliance with new local standards. Those examples were offered as possible models, not as formal recommendations from county staff.
County staff did not announce a specific enforcement action during the meeting. Residents said they have asked for records of permits or approvals for the range and said they have not received a clear response from county offices.
Other comments included a separate public comment by Wallace Swain, who described attempting to buy a parcel that “will not perk” and said zoning and permitting rules left the land effectively unusable while the county’s tax appraisal valued it at $15,000 per acre.
The board took no immediate regulatory action at the meeting; public commenters were told the board may consider ordinance changes at a later time. The speakers’ request for the county to publish permitting records and to explain what legal findings prevent action remained outstanding at the meeting’s close.
Ending: Commissioners did not commit to a timetable for a follow-up on the TASK range; residents said they will continue to press the matter and to request public records and ordinance language that the county identified as limiting its actions.
