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Maplewood council raises safety, land‑use concerns about long‑standing South Maplewood gun range
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Summary
Councilmembers discussed a decades-old gun range on Ramsey County property leased to St. Paul, noting its proximity to new homes and a planned park, state statutory protections, and potential alternatives including a new public-safety training facility; a site meeting will be rescheduled.
Mayor Abrams and council members returned to a long-running debate about a South Maplewood gun range on March 9, saying the facility — in place for more than 50 years on Ramsey County property leased to the city of St. Paul — now sits near new residential development and a planned park.
"Does it really make sense to have a gun range there anymore?" Mayor Abrams asked, noting that a soon-to-be-built townhome could sit about 65 feet from the range property line and that a new park would be roughly 650 feet from the line. She said a state statute gives priority to the existence of an established gun range, which complicates local efforts to change its use.
Council members said the range is a sore topic in the community. Council member Cave noted that the city does not use the range and that public-safety personnel can travel to other ranges, reducing local demand for continued operation. The mayor said the city is exploring alternatives, including relocating training to a planned public-safety training facility for which the city recently secured approximately $2,000,000 in federal funding.
Developer and builder representatives at the meeting discussed whether the gun range parcel could ever be incorporated into new development; Deb Ridgeway of D.R. Horton said improvements at the range previously made development more complicated but that "nothing is off the table." The mayor said a site meeting among Ramsey County, St. Paul and Maplewood that was postponed for weather will be rescheduled to discuss options.
What happens next: the mayor and staff said they will pursue further discussions with Ramsey County and St. Paul and hold an on-site meeting when weather permits. The council did not take formal action at this meeting.
